The story starts about a month after the situation at the Metro Court, except that everyone made it out alive (except Sam, but she's not dead. We'll get to that later.) Also, Luke has divorced Tracy Quartermaine. I think everything else is explained in the story- if not, I'll let you know when it becomes important. Enjoy!

Chapter One

Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever gonna make it home again…

Elizabeth Spencer sighed, looking down at the piece of paper in her hand for what seemed like the millionth time since she had first laid eyes on it. Scrubbing her hand across her face, she leaned back in the driver's seat of her car and stared out the windshield at the front door of the PCPD, just like she had been doing for the past half hour, trying to decide if she wanted to go inside or not. Closing her eyes, her mind drifted back to earlier that morning.

Elizabeth paced back and forth in front of the door to Penthouse Two, smiling at a slightly concerned looking Johnny reassuringly. A minute later, Jason opened the door, dressed in one of his customary grey tees and wearing the facial expression that had graced his face ever since Sam had been kidnapped during the hostage crisis at the Metro Court Hotel. He gestured her inside the apartment wordlessly.

Once inside, Jason moved to take her coat, but Elizabeth shook her head. "I can't stay long, I'm supposed to be meeting Emily and Nikolas for lunch, but I still need to go see Lucky first."

"What's up?" Jason asked, clearing some files and papers off of the couch and gesturing for her to sit down. She sank into the couch gratefully, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes and looking up at him. She sighed.

"Jason, I was just at my doctor's appointment, and I asked her if I could see my file- you know, look over my test results and stuff, see for myself that everything was okay with the baby," she said, as he sat beside her. Jason nodded. Elizabeth took a deep breath and continued. "There was a copy of the paternity test results in there- the original copy, and it said that Lucky was the father."

Elizabeth wiped her eyes, looking back up at the door of the police station. She was still trying to get up the courage to go inside and tell Lucky the news; she could still see his face when he had overheard her telling Jason that he was the father after the hostage crisis at the Metro Court hotel. Shaking her head, she opened her car door and got out. She was going to have to do this sooner or later. She didn't even know why she was so nervous- she hadn't been nervous at all when she had gone to talk to Jason, and that was to tell him that hewasn't the baby's father. He had taken it surprisingly well, actually. Elizabeth suspected that it had something to do with the fact that he could now focus his entire attention on finding Sam, and she didn't blame him at all.

She stopped in front of the door to the station and moved to stand against the outside wall, rubbing her forehead. Maybe she would just stand out here for a few minutes.

Lucky looked up from his paperwork just in time to see his partner repeatedly banging his head against his desk. Laughing, he reached across and tapped Cruz on the head with his pen.

Cruz lifted his head from the desk. "What?"

"What's your deal?" Lucky asked, setting his paperwork down and leaning back in his chair, folding his hands and resting them on his chest. Cruz, too, sat back, pinching the bridge of his nose- something that he did when he was irritated, Lucky had noticed.

"First we get stuck with all of this paperwork for a case that will, with the District Attorney's track record lately, get dropped as soon as we're finished," Cruz said, gesturing to the mounds of paperwork he and Lucky had been given earlier in the day, "then the Commish's daughter decides that she wants to flirt with me in order to make you jealous- yeah, that was fun, let me tell you- and now we're no closer to being done here and my lunch date's going to kill me because I'm going to be late, if I even get to show up at all."

Lucky raised his eyebrows. "Wow. I thought you didn't date."

Cruz gave him an incredulous look. "That's all you can say?" Lucky laughed loudly.

"Look, why don't you go ahead and go?" he suggested. "I can wrap up this part in the next few minutes before I have to leave to meet Nikolas, Emily and Elizabeth for lunch."

"Are you sure, man? That would be great- if I'm late again, my date's going to kill me," Cruz said, standing and slipping his sport coat back on. "I've already had to cancel on her twice this week because of work."

"Yeah, no problem," Lucky said, waving at him. "You can make it up to me by letting me leave early this afternoon so that I can pick Cam up from daycare. We're going out, just the two of us. There's this new movie playing that he wants to see."

"Okay. Sounds great," Cruz said. "Thanks again, Lucky. See ya later." And with that, he was out of the station before Lucky could even say good-bye. Laughing, he looked back down at the paperwork on his desk and felt his grin slip off his face quickly. He dove back in, hoping that he could get at least some of it finished before he had to leave.

"Lucky."

Lucky jerked his head up at the sound of Elizabeth's voice. She was standing in front of him, arms crossed over her swollen stomach and looking rather nervous. He stood, grasping her elbows gently. "What's wrong, Lizzie?"

At the sound of him calling her by her nickname, something that no one except Nikolas had called her in years, she couldn't help but smile. "Nothing's wrong," she said reassuringly. "Actually, something's finally right for once."

"Liz, what are you talking about?" he asked, looking at her curiously. The two of them had been on shaky ground ever since he had found out that her baby was Jason's and not his, and she hadn't made it a point to seek him out recently.

"Lucky, maybe you should sit back down." Elizabeth bit her lip, looking wary.

"Is something wrong with the baby? What's the matter, Elizabeth?"

"No, no, Lucky, the baby's fine." Elizabeth smiled, a real smile, for the first time since she had entered the station. "Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I was at the doctor this morning and I asked to see my file, so that I could look over all of the test results and reassure myself that the baby was okay. You know me; I need to see it for myself."

Lucky nodded, watching her carefully.

"Anyway, I was looking through the papers and I found this." Elizabeth held out a slip of paper, and Lucky took it. Looking at it, he saw the wordspaternity test emblazoned across the top. He looked back up at her, and, at the expression on her face, looked back down at the paper.

"Father: Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, Jr." He looked back up at Elizabeth, whose eyes were shining. "Elizabeth, what-?"

"The results must have gotten switched. That was the original, the one that you're holding. Kelly confirmed it." Elizabeth grinned. "Lucky, you have no idea how happy I was when I saw that paper."

"I think I do," he said, his voice shaking slightly in disbelief. Without warning, he grabbed her in a tight hug, lifting her off the floor and spinning her around. He heard her laugh happily and felt tears streaming down her face- or were those his? It didn't matter, he decided. It was worth it to have his coworkers see him cry. He was going to be a father!

Setting her back on her feet, he looked down, his arms still around her waist. Elizabeth tightened her hold on his neck with one hand while wiping her eyes with the other. They stood there, just like that, for a moment before Lucky spoke.

"Let's go tell Nikolas and Emily," he said, grinning down at her, the lopsided grin that he and Lulu had both inherited from their father. Looping her arm around his waist, she smiled back as they headed from the building.

Nothing had been resolved, Elizabeth knew, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.

Lulu Spencer sighed, drumming her fingers on the bar in the Cellar. The bartender set another club soda in front of her and she smiled at him gratefully, snickering inside when he blushed a vivid red and turned to serve another customer. She didn't think she looked that good, though she had dressed up a little, donning a slate blue sweater with a black leather miniskirt and black knee-high, spike heeled boots that she had very nearly killed herself with on the wet pavement outside. She was wearing her hair its natural way, curly, because she hadn't felt like doing much else besides scrunching some gel into it that morning.

She heard a wolf whistle from behind her and turned around to see her lunch date standing there smiling at her. "Well, look at that," she said, standing from the barstool. "He shows up, and on time, too!"

Her date's response was to simply smirk at her, before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. A moment later, she pulled back, giving him a Look.

"Are you insane? Anyone could see us here, and it could get back to Lucky!" she said, not bothering to remove her hands from where they were gripping his shoulders.

Cruz Rodriguez just shook his head. "Right now, I don't really care." Lulu looked at him incredulously.

"Who are you and what have you done with Cruz?" she asked, arching her right eyebrow. They made their way to a small table in the back corner and sat down. "I'm waiting," she prodded, letting him know that she was not going to let this go. He sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Just really needed to see you, that's all," was the only explanation that she got. Lulu rolled her eyes, secretly pleased at his words.

"Care to explain why? I mean, you haven't been too keen on seeing me at all lately, and then I get a call asking me if I want to go to lunch. And at the Cellar, my cousin's restaurant, of all places." Lulu surveyed the man in front of her, thinking about just how much things had changed since they had started working together.

Cruz was helping Lulu with her project of trying to prove Laura innocent and had been for about a month, since not long after the whole hostage crisis thing had ended. He had caught her snooping around the file room at the PCPD, looking for anything she could find about the case against her mother, and had informed her that he wouldn't say anything to Lucky about what she was doing as long as she swore not to break into the file room again. She had countered that if he would help her, she wouldn't have to break into said file room again. It had been the beginning of a wonderful partnership- that hadn't taken too long to evolve into something more, Lulu mused, though they were both still a little squeamish about actually calling it a relationship, since Cruz was still on the "he was too old for her" kick and Lulu was afraid that if she pushed it, he might bolt.

Plus, there was the fact that he was afraid Lucky would kill him if he found out.

So then why was he being so obvious today, and why didn't he seem to care who saw? That was the sixty-four thousand dollar question, Lulu decided, and sipped her club soda, waiting patiently for his answer.

"I found something that might help with the case," Cruz told her, leaning forward over the table. Lulu frowned.

"So that's all this is about?" she asked, trying not to let the hurt show in her voice. He reached out and lay his hand on top of hers, squeezing gently.

"No, that was just an excuse," he admitted. "I've missed having you around." Lulu smiled despite herself.

"You mean you've missed me showing up at your place at the crack of dawn, or not leaving until midnight? And you can't tell me you've missed the chick flicks," she said, grinning. They gave their orders to the waiter, handing him their menus and waiting to talk again until he walked away.

"No, I certainly haven't missed those awful movies, and I have enjoyed getting to sleep in. Did you know I actually got to sleep until ten on Sunday?" he told her. "It was a freaking miracle, let me tell you." He squeezed her hand again. "But I have missed you."

"I've missed you, too," Lulu admitted. "So we know the solution to this, right? Next time you freak out and decide you're too old for me, and are therefore not going to call me for the next week, just let me know first, kay?" She smirked at him as he rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to know what I found out or not, Camorrista?"

Lulu grinned and leaned forward conspiratorially. She was all ears.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Emily looked up as Nikolas came striding through the gate by Kelly's. "Spencer was a little fussy when I tried to put him down for his nap."

"That's okay, I was the only one here," Emily told him, gesturing around. He took the gesturing hand and pulled her up from her seat towards him, kissing her hello.

"So where's Liz and Lucky?" Nikolas asked, moving to sit down at the table Emily had been sitting at. Emily sank back into her chair, shrugging.

"I have no idea," she admitted. "Liz said that she was going to be here around one, but it's about one-thirty now and I haven't seen her. Lucky being late I can understand, with all of the work that he's been doing at the station lately, but Liz is usually on time."

"Hey, sorry we're late!" Elizabeth's voice called from somewhere out of sight, probably around the other side of the building.

Emily and Nikolas looked at each other, Emily mouthing "we?" They looked up just in time to see Elizabeth and Lucky rounding the corner of the building, Lucky's arm looped around Liz's waist and both of them looking happier than Emily had seen them look in quite a while. She stood, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows.

"What?" Elizabeth asked, trying to look innocent but failing miserably, her whole face lit up with a huge smile, her eyes sparkling. And Lucky wasn't faring much better- he didn't seem to be able to take his eyes off of Elizabeth.

"What's going on?" Nikolas asked, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet on the table. Emily smacked his feet, gesturing for him to move them but he ignored her, watching his brother and former sister-in-law. Lucky and Elizabeth looked at each other, then back at Emily and Nikolas.

Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth spoke. "Well, I found something out this morning," she said. At Emily's prodding look, she continued. "I was at my appointment and I asked if I could see my file."

"Yeah, you always do that," Emily reminded her. "So?"

"The baby's Lucky's," Elizabeth said in a rush. All Emily could do was stare at her. She heard a thud as Nikolas's feet hit the ground and he stood.

"What- how?" Nikolas asked, looking confused. "I thought that the paternity test said-" Elizabeth cut him off.

"I know, but the original was in my file and it said that Lucky was the father," she explained. "All I can think of is that the results must have gotten switched around somehow when they gave me the copy."

"Or someone switched them," Emily said ominously, a thought coming into her mind. The others all looked at her questioningly. Emily sighed. "All I'm saying is that someone with access to things around the hospital could have switched the test results on purpose."

It dawned on Elizabeth what Emily was saying. "Em, if you're saying what I think you are…." She let her sentence trail. It made sense- if Maxie had the ability to fake not only a pregnancy and doctor's appointments, but also a miscarriage, then it wasn't much of a stretch to think that she could have switched the results of Elizabeth's paternity tests, especially considering how much she wanted Lucky for herself.

"That's a serious accusation," Nikolas said, catching on.

"But not an impossible one," Elizabeth said. Then she shook her head. "We'll talk about that later. Right now, we're supposed to be focusing on spending time with each other and celebrating this baby! Besides, I'm starving. And I have to pee," she announced unceremoniously. Lucky rolled his eyes.

"Every ten minutes," Nikolas muttered, grinning when Liz scowled at him. Emily shook her head as the foursome set off for the Cellar.