AUTHOR'S NOTE: DON'T WORRY I MADE SURE I EXPLAINED WHY ABBY AND JOHNNY ARE LIVING TOGETHER IN THIS CHAPTER! THERE IS A METHOD TO MY MADNESS! I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: NOPE.
Abby was surprised to find Lulu reading the newspaper when she walked into the Haunted Star early the next morning. For the most part when she showed up to work Lulu looked tired and overwhelmed. She always was either already busy getting something ready or surveying the room with a look that suggested she wanted to throw in the towel. So of course with this being the morning of the relaunch she had been expecting the vivacious blonde to look harried, rushing around the room trying to get everything done on her own. To find Lulu sitting at the bar, reading the newspaper, and humming quietly to herself was a surprising sight.
"Looks like going home early last night did you some good," Abby noted as she set down the coffee she'd picked up in front of her.
Lulu set her paper down and looked at her curiously, "What makes you say that?"
"Well seeing as you were just humming to yourself and this is the first time I've seen you not look like you want to read Tracy the riot act for getting you involved with this I would say that leaving early last night and spending time with Dante must have been just what the doctor ordered."
Lulu chuckled softly. She couldn't even deny Abby's assessment. Taking over this place had definitely brought out the worst in here. "You know I think that's the most you've said to me that wasn't about hiring someone or Haunted Star business related."
"Well you haven't exactly looked like you were in the mood to chat about anything other than those two things," she replied, shrugging as she took a sip of her coffee.
"I've been miserable to work with, haven't I?"
"Far from it," Abby assured her. "You've just been extremely focused. I was just telling Johnny the other day though that it was nice to hanging around a woman for a change."
"Do you and Johnny spend a lot of time together?" Despite the fact that Lulu knew that Abby was madly in love with Michael she couldn't help feeling a bit jealous and territorial even though she was dating Dante and had no claim to Johnny.
"You could say that. I live with him."
Lulu's eyes widened at this bit of information.
"It isn't like that. I couldn't afford to keep my place anymore when I decided to stop dancing and I'm not ready to live with Michael. Johnny offered to let me stay with him seeing as he's back at the Zacchara estate and there's plenty of room."
"Oh," Lulu mustered before adding, "That was kind of Johnny."
"He's one of the good ones," Abby agreed. She watched Lulu closely before finally getting the courage to ask, "How exactly does a cop's girlfriend become close friends with a made man like Johnny Zacchara?"
Lulu smiled weakly. Sometimes she forgot that there were people out there that didn't know every single skeleton that hung in her closet. She knew that she could deflect the question and say that they just went back a long ways, but in the long run it would just come out anyway so instead she whispered, "By dating him first."
Few things really shocked Abby. After working as an exotic dancer for years she learned that you couldn't take anyone at face value. Still this surprised her. Even though all of the clues and hints were there she still couldn't see Lulu allowing herself to fall for someone as dangerous as Johnny. In fact he was kind of the exact opposite of everything that her current boyfriend stood for.
"It was before I met Dante. I was young and dating a bad boy was exciting. I didn't plan on falling in love with him."
"We never do."
"Anyway one day I realized that I wanted stability and even though he tried to walk away from his last name and legacy it haunted him until one day he just accepted it as his fate."
If this had been a movie or a novel Abby probably would have cried at this moment because it was obvious that Lulu still carried at least a small torch for Johnny Zacchara. Between the way the soft vulnerability of her voice and the way she kept staring in the distance as if she was remembering their life together it was obvious.
Neither one of them said anything for a moment. Lulu was lost in her thoughts about Johnny. It had been so long since she'd really thought about their relationship. Stumbling upon him battered and bruised that day had brought back so many memories that she had been willing to overlook before then. Abby just sat there wondering what the chances were that Dante knew about Lulu's life before him. Just as Abby was about to break the silence and ask another question the front door opened and in sauntered a rather disgruntled looking Ethan who asked, "How the bloody hell do people wake up this early on a regular basis?" The moment and conversation it seemed was over.
- J - & - L -
He hated to admit it, but Johnny liked Michael. He was different than Ethan in that it was obvious he wasn't always thinking about how a plan would benefit him. He was funny and even if Jason and Sonny hadn't wanted this life for him, they'd done a great job grooming him into an excellent protégé. When he first approached the young man his ultimate goal had been to get back at Sonny as well as achieve some sort of revenge for Claudia. But then Michael had actually somehow managed to win him over.
He saw a lot of himself in Michael. They both fought with the desire to be something other than career criminals while at the same time knowing that their last names would never allow for a different life. It was an inner turmoil that no one around them truly understood. He could still remember the conversation he had with Michael where Michael admitted to him that Dante's assurances he could be more than a made man suffocated him. It all boiled down to the fact that it wasn't true. Unless he left Port Charles behind and got a new identity he'd always been Sonny Corinthos' namesake.
"You ready to go man?"
Johnny looked up and smiled when he saw Michael standing in front of him, "Of course. You know sometimes it is uncanny how much you look like Jason."
Michael rolled his eyes, "Here we go with that shit again."
"I'm just saying if you quit smiling so much you'd look just like him."
"Well he is my Uncle," Michael reminded him just like he always did when this conversation came up. "What's actually uncanny is the fact that if someone didn't know better it wouldn't be hard to convince them that you were a Cassadine."
Johnny laughed because even though he wanted to deny it he couldn't.
"You should have heard how excited Abby was about all of the changes they've made to the Haunted Star." At first Michael had been unsure about Abby going to work with Lulu. After all Lulu had a tendency to be a lot like his mother and he was worried that Lulu would use it as an opportunity to break them up. He'd been pleasantly surprised when he realized that Lulu seemed to give him enough credit that she'd try to sabotage his first adult relationship. "Thank you again for setting her up with this job."
"While I might have suggested her to Lulu, she's been the one who has done such a good job that Lulu couldn't say enough good things about her."
"You and Lulu have been talking?" Michael had been young and self-absorbed when Lulu and Johnny were at the height of their relationship. Still he knew enough to be surprised when he found out that they talked to each other the first time. Finding out that they had talked again was hard to fathom.
"A little," Johnny shrugged. He didn't want to make it into something more than it was in fear that Michael might let something slip to Dante. Lulu's other half already couldn't stand him. This would just give Dante another reason to examine his business dealings even more closely. "Port Charles is a small town and there aren't that many places to drink expensive liquor in peace."
Michael didn't say anything even though on the tip of his tongue was, "Yeah I'm sure that's the only reason you two have been talking again".
- J - & - L -
Lulu couldn't believe the turnout. For once all of the people pouring in weren't just family and friends. In fact she could honestly say she didn't know most of the people who were gladly spending lots of their money at the Haunted Star.
She glanced around the room and found herself looking for him…again. She should have been searching for Dante who promised that he would come as soon as he could get off of work. Instead she kept looking towards the door for him. It wasn't until she was in the middle of making a drink for one of the waitresses that she finally spotted him. Between the way he wore his suit and the megawatt smile that graced his already handsome features she couldn't help but smile appreciatively. Then again she'd never been able to deny that Johnny Zacchara was a fine specimen.
- J - & - L -
AUTHOR'S NOTE: SORRY FOR THE LACK OF INTERACTION BETWEEN THE TWO OF THEM IN THIS CHAPTER. I PROMISE THAT THERE WILL BE A HELL OF A LOT MORE IN THE NEXT ONE. I'M SORRY FOR CAUSING SUCH ALARM BY HAVING JOHNNY AND ABBY LIVE TOGETHER. I HONESTLY DID IT BECAUSE I NEED MICHAEL AND ABBY TO HELP FURTHER THEIR RELATIONSHIP. HAHA. ALSO I THINK IT IS UNREALISTIC ON THE SHOW FOR ABBY TO HAVE HER OWN PLACE BECAUSE SHE OBVIOUSLY DOESN'T HAVE A JOB. HAHA. I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR THOUGHTS. ALSO THERE'S GOING TO BE SOME DRAMA NEXT CHAPTER. ARE YOU GUYS READY FOR THAT?
