Lulu Let's 'Em Have It!
Lulu sits next to Dante's bed, her right hand on his and her left brushing his hair from his face, drained of everything inside her. Everything is dry: tear ducts, mouth, hands, skin. She's severely dehydrated; not even Patrick can tear her away from Dante's side. She can't take her eyes off him for fear she'd miss even a flutter of his beautiful long eyelashes or seeing his big brown eyes open, any movement at all whether voluntary or involuntary. The man that saved her life twice was lying in front of her and all she could do was wait beside him.
Heated voices filtered into the room. Though the door was closed, she could hear them. His parents were Italian and Costa Rican; those kind of voices carried through steel walls. The walls of the hospital were like particle board. They're fighting, fighting, fighting, she thought to herself, while he's laying here fighting for his life. He doesn't need to hear them. If she could hear them so could he, she mused. No, she hoped he could hear them then she knew he would wake up. The thought of the opposite terrified her, even more than she was now. You have to wake up, Dante, she said aloud. You have to wake up.
A loud thump on the wall shook the door to Dante's room. That's it, she thought. It's enough! She lunged up from her spot toward the door, opened it and screamed, "Stop it!" It was a primordial scream; it made everyone within ear shot shiver. Breathing hard from the force of the scream and her dehydration, Lulu looked over all the faces in front of her: Sonny, Olivia, Kate, Carly, Jason, Jax, Michael, Morgan, Christina, Luke, Lucky, Patrick, Johnny, & Sam. All of them, she thought, didn't deserve to be here.
"All of you. All of you. Not another word, breath or look in the direction of this hospital room until you stop fighting."
"Lulu," Olivia started toward Lulu, laying a hand on her cheek, "Honey, you need to rest and eat a little something."
"No," Lulu backed away from Olivia, "I'm fine. I'm not the one fighting for my life."
"Cupcake," Luke looked at his daughter with actual concern, "You're so pail. At least drink something."
"I'm not speaking to you. Why are you even here? You never liked Dante anyway," Lulu pointed.
"He care's about you, honey," Olivia said as she walked to Lulu with a small plastic glass of water. "He's here for you like I'm here for Dante."
"This is not about ME!" Lulu took the water from Olivia and looked piercingly into her brown eyes and said with a firm, angry voice, "It's about Dante! And if you cared so much about Dante, none of this would have happened."
"That's not fair, Lulu," Olivia countered.
"Fair? What's not fair is that your son is laying in that hospital bed shot by his own father and he doesn't even know it. You started all of this years ago when you kept his father from him…and then when you saw him here you didn't tell him. Even when I asked you to do something you didn't do anything." Lulu took a sip of the water.
"I did try, Lulu," Olivia countered, "I did try. I was in an impossible sit…"
"No, Olivia. It wasn't impossible. You had a choice to tell them and you didn't." Lulu interrupted, her voice slowly became hard and direct. "You could've stopped this at any time, and you didn't. You kept secret after secret and now your son, your baby, is laying in that room fighting for his life while you're here fighting with his father about what? What are you fighting about? Whose fault it is? All of you! The answer is all of you!" Her arms flailed and the water glass flew from her hands to the floor.
"Lulu, Olivia was just…" Johnny started to defend Olivia.
"You, too," Lulu interrupted, unphased at Johnny's defense or her own water throwing skill. "You're to blame, too, Johnny. You knew and you pushed and you pressured and you used Dante to get your revenge on Sonny." Lulu wiped her hair out of her face. Her anger had grown to the point that whatever water was left in her body was pouring out of her as sweat. Her hair clung to the sides of her face and forehead distracting her briefly. She closed her eyes briefly, gathered herself with a deep breath and continued, "And for what? Claudia? Claudia? Your psycho sister who tried to kill Sonny but shot Michael instead, then tried to kill him again? And when she was caught, she kidnapped Carly and tried to steal her baby? That's who you did all this for? Come on, Johnny. You disowned your father. CLAUDIA WAS WORSE. Why protect her? She was nuts and a nuisance and sorry, but this world is better without her."
Lulu was shaking now; the anger, pain, dehydration and adrenaline were consuming her. She felt a little faint.
"Lulu, calm down," Carly interjected, "you're going to faint."
"Yes, you should sit down," Jax added.
"First," Lulu collecting herself, "I'm not going to faint. Second, Jax, this is your fault as well. You knew, too. You knew and you pressured Dante from the beginning. He confided in me about all your "hop to it" meetings…."
"What?! You knew?" Carly interrupted, her attention directed towards Jax.
"Oops. Sorry, Jax. The cat's out of the bag. Guess you should've told the truth, too. Another secret. Secrets! Too many secrets!" Lulu was yelling now.
"Lulu, calm down. They're right, you need to sit down and at least drink something," Patrick chimed in, trying to help her into a chair. Lulu started laughing and shoved his hands away from her.
"His doctor," she laughed, "even his doctor knew who his parents were. You could've stopped this month's ago after the carnival. You could've used your medical position to force the kidney tests. We all know you're an arrogant, brilliant surgeon. Why was Dante's case any different? Why didn't you at least force the family to have tests done? Olivia would've had to tell Sonny or you could've done it for her!"
"It wasn't my place to reveal that information. And Dante didn't need the transplant."
"That's no excuse Patrick," Lulu countered, "how would you feel if Emma were on her deathbed and she didn't know you were her father? Would you want to know? Did you think of Sonny in all this? His oldest child just saved his own brother…and none of them knew it? You should've done what Olivia didn't or couldn't."
"It's not fair to blame Patrick. He did his job the best way he could," Robin said.
"Maybe you're right, Robin, but you're not Dante. And you aren't lying in that bed, again, having been shot by his own father…who your husband could have identified month's ago so none of this ever would've happened," Lulu's retort was harsh.
"The man in that room is not my brother. How do you know anyway? Did you do a paternity test?" Michael seethed.
Lulu walked over to him, rage in her eyes, and slapped him hard.
"You don't say another word. The man in there is a better man than you'll ever be. You're downright lucky that you get to be his brother because you're a coward, Michael. When you're hurt, you run away. When you're angry, you hide behind Sonny. The man laying in that room, not knowing he was your brother, agonized over taking your father away from you, over using you in any way. It pained him to be so deceitful with you, and you, too, Morgan, Kristina. He saw how much Sonny loved all of you and you loved him. But at the end of the day, he believed that your father would be better behind bars and out of your lives."
"Sonny's our father. Dante has no right to make that decision for us. Dad has respect and power…" Michael defended.
"…He's a coward, Michael, and a killer. And you're an idiot not to see that and to want to be like him. None of what Sonny does makes him respected or powerful. It makes him weak and a criminal. I finally see that now. I see exactly who you are, Sonny. You may be my dad's best friend but you are no friend of mine anymore." She had turned to Sonny by then and gave him a look that could drop a man dead in his tracks.
"Do you see what kind of son you raised? Michael is a punk. He wants to be like you only he doesn't understand what that really means. He is so off-base. He needs help, Sonny, psychological help. Take it from me, I know. I see it. I've seen it since he first came out of the coma. And by the way, you are not a licensed therapist. You can't help him. You've just made him worse. The man in that room is his brother, your son, and he hates him. You even liked Dominic before you found out he was your son. Why was that, Sonny? Why?"
"I don't know. There was just something about him. I trusted him."
"And you've never trusted Michael. He's the most like you so why don't you trust him, your so-called #1 son? Because you know he is already like you too much. You know that you are not the father that you needed to be for Michael. Look at Michael, Sonny. LOOK AT HIM!" she yelled at Sonny. "He may not look like you but he's all you. It's like looking in the mirror, isn't it? It's scary, isn't it?"
Sonny didn't answer…his face stone as ever, but his eyes were getting glassy.
"And Kristina? She hates you. She's a smart girl. She knows what you are and she's trying to stay away from you any way she can. And Morgan, well, Morgan is just young enough to learn from the choices of his brother, sister and father. Still, he loves you, Sonny. But he's young enough that he can be saved from you. And you know why? Because of the man laying in that hospital room. Your first son. Dante is all the good you are not. He is the role model that you are not. Without your influence, he became everything that you have tried to be your whole life. It's actually hilarious to me that he became a cop, the very opposite of you. And for that, Olivia," she turns to her, and continues, "I guess I have to thank you for raising him and for keeping him away from Sonny. Maybe I should forgive you, maybe Dante should forgive you. But the man that I love is in there because his father, who didn't know he was his father, shot him! That's still on you, Olivia. Your son's father shot him because of you."
Light-headed, Lulu started to sway a little then. The emotion she felt started to really affect her ability to stand up. Luke and Lucky rushed over to her and tried to balance her. She pushed them both away and after a few moments was able to steady herself.
"You know, neither of you deserve to be here either. Lucky, Dante saved your butt at work and Luke, Dante saved my life, twice, and you didn't even thank him. You weren't around. Dante is always around. He's always saving me, instead of putting me in positions to be saved." Turning to Lucky, Lulu continued, "You want to be like him?," pointing to Luke, "Really? You want to spiral your way down to be like our father, a loser who chooses to chase the Cassadine's all over the globe instead of stick around and be our dad? Really? And Elizabeth is the reason why? A woman whose sons aren't even yours, who's cheated on you more times than I can count and who is in love with your brother? Really? You see? I can't even depend on you, my own brother."
Lulu was spent; she had nothing left. Her voice, though much softer than before, was firm.
"No. The only person that has shown loyalty and is honorable, even humble at times despite himself, the only real man here is laying in that bed fighting for his life. And he doesn't need family and friends like you in his life…though if you were in trouble he'd save you, too. That's who he is. I'm done. I'm just done with you all. I suggest if you want to be a part of his life, or mine, you take a good look at yourself and at him and you make the changes you need to make. He was willing to put his life on the line for what is right. I can't see any of you doing that. He saved me and with everything I have left I will save him, even if that means saving him from all of you."
Lulu turned and walked back in Dante's room to the chair she had lived in for the past three days. She laid her head on the bed near his right lung, her hands again on his, and resting the weight of her weary body against the side of the bed.
"Are…you…done?" were the next words she heard. They were slow and faint but deep. No one had entered the room; and the voice was all too familiar. She looked over at Dante. She could see his big brown eyes through his half open eyelids and a faint smile graced his lips. The anesthesia had finally worn off. The tears that she thought were dried up started to run down her cheeks, and she caught her breath. He was awake!