Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the characters, they are the property of General Hospital and ABC. Please keep reviewing because that is what encourages me to continue writing.
Chapter 1
It was almost noon when Sam McCall woke with a groan, the hangover an instant reminder that she had drank way too much at Maxie's bachelorette party. How on Earth was she going to make it through tonight's wedding and reception with a headache the size of Texas? She still had a few last minute details to finish as part of her Maid of Honor duties so she dry swallowed a couple of Aleve and laid back thinking how things had gotten this way. She was so happy that her best friend had finally found true love even with the most unlikely of people … her own cousin Nikolas. Emily's death had hit Nik hard and he had made some destructive choices but none worse that his affair with Elizabeth Webber who had been not only Emily's best friend but was engaged to his brother Lucky at the time. The affair not only devastated Lucky who Sam considered her best friend outside of Maxie, but Sam as well as her history with Elizabeth was known all too well in Port Charles.
The minute Sam heard of the affair she had dropped everything and rushed over to Jake's where she knew Lucky would be staying. He wouldn't kick Elizabeth, Cam and Jake out of his family house, he was too good of a man for that. When Lucky had opened the door to his room, Sam had rushed in and wrapped her arms around him trying to comfort him in any way she could. When they pulled apart she could see the hurt in his eyes, no anger just the sense of betrayal at the hands of the two people he had trusted the most. Seeing the pain in his eyes Sam simply said "What do you need?" Hearing those four words caused Lucky to finally smile. "You!" he had replied and pulled her into his arms and held on for dear life. They had been practically inseparable since that day. Although many assumed and gossiped that she and Lucky had resumed their affair that was not the case. Theirs was a relationship finally built on trust and complete honesty, something that had been missing in their initial relationship. Sam loved Lucky but was not in love with him and the same went for Lucky. She knew the gossipers would be out in full force this evening with her being Maid of Honor and Lucky being Nik's best man. It had taken a lot of time and a whole lot of intervention from Sam but Nik and Lucky had finally rebuilt their relationship and were now closer than ever before.
It had been a surprise when Nik had told her one day that he though Maxie was a remarkable woman. She wasn't Nik's usual type of woman, Maxie said and did what she wanted and consequences be damned. Maybe it was that energy level that had drawn him to her. When Nik had told her he thought Maxie was beautiful, Sam of course being Sam just had to get involved. Maxie had just ended her relationship with Spinelli after finding out he had slept with her sister Georgie. Everyone thought Georgie was dead but in true Helena fashion, she had faked Georgie's death although nobody really knew why as she had no ties to anyone that opposed the Cassadine family. Spinelli had apologized profusely but Maxie knew that he and Georgie had been in love, although not professed, before her apparent death and did the right thing and walked away, leaving Spinelli and Georgie free to finally be together. They had parted as good friends though and Spinelli would be at tonight's wedding with her sister. Sam loved the effect Maxie had on Nik, she made him seem more like a normal person instead of the stuck up prince so many thought he was. Mac, Maxie's adopted dad, was of course thrilled to see Maxie go from the mob to royalty and thanked Sam every chance he got. Mac was soon to be a member of her own family as well as he had recently proposed to her mom Alexis. It seemed that everyone had someone these days except for Lucky and Sam which is why it surprised nobody that they would attend the wedding and reception together.
With a sigh Sam finally crawls out of bed and heads for a shower to start her long day. Twenty minutes later she is dressed in jeans and red halter top along with her favorite black boots. Gathering her clothes for the wedding she heads out the door to get the show on the road. Sam has just started driving her black SUV through Port Charles when her cell rings. Looking down at the display she smiles before pressing the speaker button and answering "hey handsome do you feel lucky?"
Lucky laughs before saying "I really need to change my name I am most certainly not lucky."
"Sure you are, you are going to have all the women drooling after you tonight."
"Yeah right but I will have the most beautiful woman on my arm tonight so I will be able to make all the men jealous."
"Delirious much? Nobody there is going to be looking at me Lucky, I have a reputation remember plus so many of them think we're dating I doubt I'll be giving out my number."
"There's always Jason" he says with a chuckle thankful he's on the phone and not in person. He's pretty sure if looks could kill he'd be dead right now.
"Hell will freeze over before Jason and I ever talk again let alone exchange numbers"
"Now Sam …."
"No Lucky we've been over this, Jason and I are over, much like you and Floor Whore. Now is the perfect time for the two of them to finally stop bullshitting around and be together since according to Floor Whore they've been in love for years." Realizing the anger she still feels is showing she sighs "I'm sorry Lucky I didn't mean to rant, it just still hurts even after everything I did to them and Jake, it still hurts."
"Listen we all know what you did with Jake now, you came clean and served your community service. You don't owe anyone anything anymore. You don't have to deal with Elizabeth ever again unlike myself." After her affair with Nik, Elizabeth had once again turned up pregnant which surprised nobody that truly knew her. Although Helena had tried to change the test results to show that Nik was the father, she was actually carrying Lucky's child. Finally Lucky would have his own biological child. He was happy for that but truthfully he just wished his child had someone else for a mother, anybody but Elizabeth.
"I know Lucky, I'm just hoping we'll be able to avoid both of them tonight, I don't want Maxie and Nik's night to be ruined, they deserve this."
"It will be a night nobody will forget Sam, I promise!"
"Well I'm pulling up to Mac's place so I better go, I'm pretty sure Maxie's going nuts and driving Mac crazy to boot."
"Ok honey see you later!" Lucky had taken to calling her honey once they had heard the first set of gossip of their renewed affair.
"Ok baby see you soon" Sam laughingly says returning with her own endearment. She knocks on the door and when it opens she sees an exasperated Mac on the other side. "Oh dear" she says.
"Thank God you're here, will you deal with her please before I start drinking?" Mac says in total seriousness.
"What's wrong" she starts to ask before she hears "I can't do this" coming from the direction of the living room before rushing in to find Maxie attempting to pace a hole in Mac's floor. "Maxie?"
"Oh thank GOD you are here. I need to call off the wedding?"
"Umm and why are we calling it off THIS time?" Sam says with amusement evident in her voice.
"I just realized that once I marry Nik I'm going to be someone's mom! Ok step-mom but Sam I'm not ready to be a motherly figure, I'm too young."
Sam burst out laughing and once she regains her composure she looks at her best friend and says "you'll be fine Maxie, Spencer is wonderful and he already adores you."
"You don't understand Sam, you don't have kids so you don't know what it's like." Maxie doesn't realize what she has done until the look of hurt spreads across Sam's face. "OMG Sam I'm sorry, I didn't mean that" she says in horror.
"You were you Maxie and I know you didn't mean for your words to hurt me but they did. I would have thought by now I would have accepted the fact that I can't have kids but I haven't. Every day I hope I'll wake up and find Lila here with me but instead I wake up to the nightmare that is my pathetic life."
"Sam your life isn't pathetic!"
Sam rolls her eyes which prompts Maxie to continue. "You've got a mother that loves you, two sisters that adore you, Nik would do anything for you if you'd let him and you have the craziest extended family ever that love you and would be lost without you. Plus there's Lucky, Spin, Jason …"
"Oh please, Jason wouldn't spit on me if I was on fire. But I suppose you're right about the others. But by that token I'm also cursed with Elizabeth and Carly. Plus I don't think Jax or Sonny would shed any tears if I disappeared. Now that I think about it, maybe it's time I said goodbye to Port Charles" Sam says deep in thought.
"Noooooo" Maxie and Sam spin around to find a very upset Spinelli. "Fair Samantha you can not leave our fair city. I would be lost without my Goddess to turn to plus who else would the Jackal partner with at our fine establishment?"
"Relax Spinelli I was just venting about my pathetic life, I can't leave Port Charles no matter how much I want to most of the time. The only family I have is here and Maxie would probably just have Mac hunt me down."
"Damn straight, right Dad?" Maxie says with a grin looking at her father.
"You're family Sam and that's all there is to it. I know Alexis would be devastated to lose you as would the girls. To be honest Sam I would miss you. I know we haven't had the best relationship in the past due to your previous relationship but I'd like to think we're past that. I know you'll never be the straight and narrow daughter but then neither is my Maxie." When Mac finishes he has a tear in his eye as does Maxie and Sam.
"Alright enough mushiness, so have you gotten this last bit of wedding jitters out of your system? I really don't want to break my cousin's heart by telling him that his bride had cold feet. Plus hellooooooo you are marrying a prince" Sam finishes with a laugh.
"Yeah I'm good I think and I keep forgetting he's a prince. However one thing I won't forget is the fact that we'll officially be family."
"We would have been family soon anyhow Maxie" Sam says with a laugh thinking of the upcoming wedding of Alexis and Mac.
"Yeah yeah details" Maxie says giggling.
"Speaking of which now that I know you 're alright I'm going to run some errands and then head to the church and make sure everything ready for tonight. Call me if you get anymore jitters."
About twenty minutes later she enters Kelly's in desperate need of a cup of Mike's famous coffee. Instantly she knows it's not going to be a quick in and out visit when she sees Jason standing there talking to Mike.
"Mike are you sure you haven't seen Sam, I really need to speak with her?"
"Well Jason it looks like it's your lucky day, she just walked through the door. So I'll let you talk to her while I get the coffee she obviously needs" Mike says with a laugh before heading towards Sam. "Hey sweetie I bet I know what you need, comin right up" he says with a smile.
"Thanks Mike you're the best" she says with true sincerity. She loves the older man dearly partly because he's such a wonderful man and partly because he's Lila's grandfather being Sonny's father. Even after her last conversation with Sonny had resulted in many angry spoken words and the ended the chance of a peaceful relationship between the two, Sam had still managed to remain very close to Mike.
"Sam we need to talk!" Jason says with a purpose striding towards her.
"You know what Jason go to hell. I have nothing to say to you. I have not come near your precious Elizabeth or her kids so back the hell off." She makes to walk around him but he grabs her by the arm causing shocks of electricity to flow through her body. No matter how angry she was at him there was no denying he still affected her like nobody else.
"It wasn't up for debate" Jason says almost dragging her out the door.
"Ok fine you drug me out here now what the fuck do you want?"
"I know I'm not your favorite person these days" he starts to say but is stopped by the look on her face.
"Ya think?"
"Damnit Sam this is important!"
"Fine get it over with I have a lot of things to do before the wedding!"
"I need to know what is going on between you and Lucky and don't lie to me Sam, I can tell when you are lying."
"I have no reason to lie but honestly Jason, it's none of your damn business. You lost the right to care about me and my life a long time ago."
"It is my business because of Elizabeth and our kids. I need to know who's going to be around them and if you're seeing Lucky again you'll be around because of Cam."
"Kids? Jason, you only have one child with Elizabeth and that's Jake."
"No Sam, Elizabeth is pregnant with my child." He starts to continue but stops seeing Sam laughing and attempting to control herself.
"Are you sure about that because I hear there were other contenders for daddy this time as well!"
"Sam don't say another word!"