Author's Note: Don't own it. Never will. GH, that is. Or their characters. I just like to toy with their lives a little bit.

As always, comments welcome. Thanks to those of you who have already shown me the love.


Chapter 3: The Talk

Dante knew better than to turn off the lights and wait in the shadows this time. He sat patiently on the couch, seriously thinking about downing that whole bottle of wine still in front of him. Yet, he knew he needed a clear head in order to talk to Lulu when she came up.

He didn't have to wait too long after Lucky left to hear noises in the hall, and keys jingling outside the door. He stood, so she would see him right away and not be startled.

She opened the door, glanced at him, turned to close the door, hang up her jacket, and put her purse and keys away. She walked straight over to the coffee table, downed the full glass of wine sitting there and set the glass back down.

"Whoa there, take it easy on the wine. It can't be that bad, can—" His grin faded when she interrupted him.

"Shut up." She said, looking at him for the first time since she had walked in the door. "Just, shut up for once in your life."

Dante's eyebrows raised a little as he studied her face. She didn't look angry, she looked—resolved. He had never seen this side of her before. She was a woman on a mission and to hell if he thought he was going to interrupt her. He motioned, not spoke, for her to continue. He wanted to hear her out.

Lulu took a deep breath and plunged in. "You're right. I don't trust you. I want to trust you, but I don't—yet." She started pacing in front of the coffee table and Dante stood firm, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's not that I don't think you're a good guy. You are. I know you are. You have morals, and you treat women with respect; you respect the law, for fuck's sake you're a cop." She paused there, thinking about looking at him to gauge his reaction, but knew that would mean she would lose her nerve.

"But this really isn't about you," she continued. "It's about me. I just don't think I trust myself. I've made some big mistakes, and when I say big, I mean, HUGE." She accentuated this by reaching out her hands in a wide gesture. She turned and started pacing again.

"And I think it's only fair you know about them before you go throwing words around, like saying you 'care about me,' and—"

"Lulu, I do care about you, and anything you've done in the past is—" Dante knew he had taken a chance in interrupting her, but he didn't want her to talk him out of her life.

"Dante, please…" she stopped pacing and looked at him, pleading. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears and she bit her bottom lip to keep them from falling. "Please don't interrupt me." She turned again to resume her pacing, more slowly than she had before.

After a few steps, she took a deep breath and blurted out, like ripping off a band aid when you're five and you know it's going to hurt, "I had an abortion. When I was 16. I was sleeping with someone who obviously was in love with someone else, and I knew I couldn't be a mother at that age." As she turned to face back towards him, Dante could see the silent tears were falling now. He wanted to reach out to her, to hold her and tell her everything was all right, but she wasn't looking at him and she didn't stop pacing, so he knew it wasn't his turn yet.

"Then, there was Logan, who was basically stalking me a couple of years ago. He was crazy. He came after me one night, and I…" she stopped now, facing a way from him. She raised her head to the ceiling and let out a deep breath and shakily let out the words, "I killed him." She paused there, looked away from the ceiling to the floor, nervously tapping her foot, holding in her sobs in by placing her hand over her mouth. After a few moments to pull herself together, she continued. "Johnny tried to help me. Tried to take care of things for me. But it was too much for me and I spent some time in Shadybrook after the murder."

She turned back to him now, eyes red with pain, daring him to answer to all that. "You know," she stated firmly, "the place for crazy people." She was looking him full in the eyes. "So, yeah," she said, nodding her head, still sucking in her bottom lip, "you really think you can care about me, now? Now that you know the real Lulu Spencer? Now that you can see what a fucking mess my life has been? I haven't even gone into how fucked up my family is!" With this she threw her hands in the air and let out a cry. Her hands came down to cover her face and she began openly weeping.

Dante was speechless, but not because he didn't care for her anymore. He just, wasn't sure how to comfort her yet, how to convince her that he wasn't scared off by all this. He decided to begin by getting closer to her.

He walked around the coffee table, took the crying woman in his arms, and just held her close to him. Her hands, that had been covering her face, after a few moments, dropped to her sides and she laid her head on his shoulder. He began shushing her, and running his hand down her hair, much like she was a child.

Then, when it all began to sink in, the anger hit him. His fist tightened around her blond hair, which had lost much of its curl while she was out on her walk. He wasn't angry at her. He was angry with what the world had thrown at her. He loosened his grip and wrapped that arm around her, grasping her shoulder, squeezed her tighter. How could anyone thing this woman was weak and needed protecting? After what she had been through, he wasn't sure he would be able to trust in love either. But he was willing to do whatever it took, wait for however long she needed, for that wall around her heart to break down and let him in.

Lulu had stopped sobbing and spoke, muffled, into his chest. "Aren't you going to stay something?"

He gave her another tight squeeze and chuckled, "Oh, so you are going to let me talk now?"

Lulu choked a small laugh in response and pulled away to look at him. He took her by her shoulders and bent so he was looking her straight in the eye. "Lulu Spencer, if you think that story scares me, you don't know who you are talking to, here."

He pulled her in for another hug and nuzzled his nose and mouth into her hair, which still smelled of fresh, crisp air and a hint of her hair product. As he breathed it in, he spoke. "I'm just sorry you've gone through all that. And I'm sorry that you were afraid that it would change the way I felt about you. Don't you know just how crazy I am about you? Lulu Spencer," he pulled her away again, so she could see his face as he told her this. "I think you are incredible. I knew you were strong. Tonight, you've just told me why. Whatever you've had to go through to become who you are doesn't matter, because it's who you are, right now, in this moment, that I am totally falling in love with."

He studied her face, measuring how she would react to this. She sniffled a little from her previous bawl fest and was frustrated with herself when she felt more tears coming. She bit her lips again, trying to push them away, but Dante wasn't fooled. He brought his hand up, that had been on her elbow and wiped the tear falling down her cheek with his thumb.

"Hey, no more of that tonight," he told her, bringing his other hand up to cup her face. Slowly moving his face towards her, looking her deep in the eyes, he hoped she could see how much he had meant every word he said. At the moment he saw her yes close, he closed his own, as he kissed her lips, softly, without any hint of heated passion, but full of patience and adoration. He let his lips linger on hers for a moment, hoping everything he couldn't express in words was in that kiss, before he pulled away to see if she was all right.

As he looked at her, her eyes were still closed, her lips were red from all the biting she had done to them. Her mascara was clumped on her eyelashes and her hair was a disaster. He thought she had never been more beautiful. You moron, he thought, you were so busy being her non-date boy friend tonight, you forgot to tell her how gorgeous she is.

"Lulu," he said softly, breaking the silence, his hands still resting on her cheeks.

"Mmm?" She opened her eyes to meet his gaze.

"I forgot to tell you how beautiful you look tonight. I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner, but I—" She muffled a laugh.

"Are you kidding? I'm a mess! How can you stand there telling me how beautiful I am when I've been crying all over you for the past hour?" She put her hands up to her hair in an effort to smooth it down, anything to put herself right.

"Don't," he told her, reaching up for her hand to stop her from worrying about it. "I love this look. I love seeing the real Lulu." He grinned at her and the mood shifted.

She laughed silently at the man standing in front of her. Could this be for real? she thought. He really accepts me for, my past, my failures, and thinks I look good when I'm a hot mess?

"How about this…" Dante began as he widened his legs in a "get ready" stance and started rubbing his hands together. "You go wash up and come back out here. I'll pick a movie and we'll sit up for a while and finish that wine. What do ya' think?"

She laughed again. "It's already eleven o'clock. You really want to start a movie now?"

He shrugged, "Heh, not really, but.." his grin fading a little bit to a questioning smirk. "I guess, I really don't want to go home yet." He paused to see how she would respond to this, but when her smile didn't fade he added, "I'm not trying to put the moves on you, I, uh, just want to be near you for a while longer. If that's okay, of course."

She crossed her arms and studied him, looking for a hint him having a cheap, man-trick up his sleeve. Since she was pretty sure he wasn't going to be letting her out of this relationship any time soon, she saw there was no need to rush things with him. Did I just think "relationship" in regards to Dante? Girl, you must be trippin'. But, he did say he was falling in love with me, and I really don't want to go to sleep yet, after all my crying tonight, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to go to sleep right away anyway. What the hell?

"What the hell. Sure. The movie collection is over there on the bookshelf." She started moving towards the bathroom to wash her face and pull her hair back. Before leaving the room, she called back "And no scary movies. I know how you boys think. The girls will 'get scared' and 'want to cuddle.' I'm know your kind, Officer. Don't think you can fool me." And she left the room.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he called after her. Okay, Dante. Nothing sad, we've had enough of that tonight. Nothing sappy, you know you don't want to sit through that. Nothing scary or scary Lulu will come back and kick your ass. "Well, I guess that leaves comedy." Don't make it a raunchy one, man. You know that's just in bad taste.

Hmm…they own Family Guy. Well, raunchy maybe, but just the type of lighthearted we need. And hey, she owns it.

When Lulu returned from the back hallway, Dante had already put the DVD in the machine and turned everything on, and was just about to get settled onto the couch.

"What are we watchin'?" Lulu wondered aloud as she wandered back in the room with her comforter around her shoulders.

Dante looked up and smiled at her. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and her face was washed clean of any trace of the tears from earlier. He could see she had changed into pajama pants and assumed there was some kind of pajama top underneath the huge comforter she was lugging with her. He soon found out when she moved around the couch and flung the comforter in front of her, revealing a light blue camisole.

"Damn woman, are you trying to kill me? Or just trying to make me go back on my word not to start any funny business?" he blurted out.

She smiled and laughed, setting herself down on the couch, pulling her legs up underneath her and pulling the comforter on top of her bottom half. "Oh, stop whining and get over here." She pulled up the comforter on her left side for him to climb under. He unzipped his hooded jacket and pulled it off, revealing a plain white t-shirt, before grabbing the DVD remote.

"You didn't answer me, what are we watching?" She said, trying not to watch the way his muscles moved under his shirt as he moved closer to the couch.

"Uh," he sighed, falling down on the couch with her. "'Family Guy,' the movie. I hope that's all right. I figured we needed a few more laughs tonight."

"Yeah, I suppose now that we're dating, it's really nice of me to let you pick the first movie." She looked over at him through the corner of her eye.

"Oh, you'll let me pick—Wait a second. Did you just tell me we are dating now?" he asked her through his toothy grin. Lulu just smiled and laughed. "Ah, come on! You're got to tell me again. I'm not sure I really heard you right. Are we dating now?" His finger pointed back and for between the two of them.

"Well, I don't cuddle up on my couch with just any guy, in my pajamas, under my comforter, to watch 'Family Guy,' at midnight, officer" She paused with each preposition, and every time she restarted her sentence, she moved closer to Dante. He reached his arm around her and rested it on her shoulder, his thumb gently caressing her soft skin. Her head came to rest on his shoulder as she spoke his favorite nickname.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to take that as a yes, my dear lady. I think we should give you a nickname, too, since you've got this thing for calling me 'Officer.' What do you think about Cupcake? Or does it creep you out if I call you the same thing your dad calls you? Or what about—"

"Just shut up and start the movie already," Lulu complained, smacking him lightly on his other shoulder with her right hand. She was already getting sleepy and knew she wasn't going to make it very far into the movie before falling asleep, but surprisingly, that was a pleasant thought for her.

Dante pushed play on the remote and carefully leaned forward to deposit it on the coffee table, re-situating himself into a more comfortable position in the corner of the couch. After giving Lulu time to get comfortable again, this time more on his chest, he replaced his hand on her shoulder. He smiled to himself. Man, I can't believe this. Lucky was right. Just give her time. That's easy. For this girl, I've got all the time in the world.

Lulu was already asleep when the theme song began to play, but Dante wasn't paying any attention either. Eventually, he, too fell asleep, thinking about how he never cared to spend another night without Lulu in his arms.