Chapter 6: It's so Hard to Say Goodbye…

Dante was trying his black tie to go with his black suit and shirt when his mother came up the elevator. Olivia was wearing a black dress. "Oh baby, I thought that you wouldn't want to be alone while you get ready."

"Thanks ma." Dante finished tying his tie and reached for his jacket. "Nikolas stopped by last night."

Olivia straightened his tie. "What did he have to say?"

"I don't know how to tell you this, ma but Nikolas doesn't believe that the body that was recovered was Lulu."

"The dental records proved that the body was his sister. Why would Nikolas think that?" Olivia asked.

"Apparently, there was a fire years ago that everyone thought that Lucky had died in. There were even dental records and a DNA match. It turns out he was being held captive for over a year. Nikolas thinks that history may have repeated itself. He is having his blood tested against the bone marrow of the body."

Olivia furrowed her eyebrow. "Why did Nikolas use his blood? I mean Lucky is her only full-sibling. You'd think that he would ask Lucky."

"Apparently Lulu had a bone marrow transplant Nikolas was the perfect match and that is how everyone found out that he was related to Lucky and Lulu," Dante explained.

"Are you the only person that he told?" Olivia asked.

"Ma it's not like that. I don't feel like she is gone. I don't have this emptiness in my heart that I thought I would have when the body was identified as Lulu."

"Reality hasn't sunken in yet. It will be really soon."

"No. Mom, I mean. If Lulu was dead, I would feel it. I don't. If the blood test comes back that it is not Lulu laying in that coffin I am going to spend the rest of my life looking for her. I will go to every continent if I have to."

Lulu awoken from her slumber, Valentin was asleep in the chair next to her bed. She thought back when he has kissed her on the beach the day before, deep down she knew something that was wrong. She felt like it shouldn't be happening. She didn't know how she felt that way she and Valentin were dating right?

Something was nagging her; she only had Valentin's word on what happened with her family. If only she could remember their phone numbers. She quietly got out of bed. She went to the bathroom that was attached to her bedroom. She splashed some water on her face.

The bathroom door opened behind her, she saw Valentin's reflection in the mirror above the sink. "You scared me, I woke up and you weren't in bed. I didn't know where you went."

"I just wanted to wash my face, Valentin," Lulu said. "Don't alert the national guard."

Valentin reached behind him, handing her a towel. "Here, I am going to have the chef start on our breakfast. I will meet you in the solarium when you are finished? It has the greatest view of the beach."

"Sure. I am just going to take a shower. Give me about thirty minutes and I will be down there."

Valentin left the bathroom; Lulu closed the door and locked it. She began to undo the bandages on her arms. She expected to see deep cuts on her arms from the car accident that Valentin claimed she was in.

"What the hell?"

Instead of cuts there were what looked to be burns. It didn't look to her that she was in a car accident at all. It looked like that she was in a fire.

Dante entered the empty church. The mahogany coffin was at the altar where he envisioned marrying Lulu. The coffin was flanked by the most beautiful flowers arrangement s that he had even seen. There was a poster-sized photograph of Lulu on an easel she was wearing the white and black dress the night that they shared their first kiss.

He sank on a pew. He looked at the ceiling. "I am so sorry baby. I should have put off work that night and taken you out for dinner. I had an important question to ask you. Then you wouldn't have been at Jake's that night waiting for me. I miss you so much. I love you and I always will."

Dante heard someone come in behind him, Dante turned it was Sonny. "Hello Sonny. I am surprised that you are here."

"Why shouldn't I be?" Sonny sat next to Dante. "You are my son. Lulu, I have known her since the moment that Luke told me that he was going to be a father."

"Have you found Luke yet?" Dante asked.

Sonny shook his head. "Unfortunately not, my men searched all of his haunts all over the world. He dropped off the face of the earth."

"It's going to kill him when he finds out that Lulu died in an explosion that was meant for Johnny," Dante said. "If I were him, I bet right now he's plotting war for that person who ordered the hit."

Sonny cleared his throat. "Carly and the boys are taking it really hard. They are going to be here soon."

Dante wiped a tear away. "I can't get myself to pack up her things yet. I expect her to walk out of the elevator all the time I hear it. Did I tell you that I was planning to propose to her that night? I had the ring in my pocket for months I was waiting for the perfect time. I should have asked her weeks ago then she wouldn't have been at Jake's waiting for me because I had to miss the dinner that I planned. I figured the first place I laid one on her will do just fine."

Sonny felt uncomfortable considering that he was to blame for his eldest son's misery. "Don't blame yourself Dante."

"If I were there she wouldn't have to movie Johnny's car…" Dante couldn't finish his sentence as he broke down in tears.

Sonny placed his hand on Dante's shoulder. "I am sorry son; I loved Lulu as a daughter."

The doors to the church opened, Lulu's brothers trudged in the church. Sonny stood up. "I am going to get some air. I will be back before the service starts." Sonny exited the church.

All of them were wearing dark suits and ties. "Hey Dante," Ethan greeted, "Scoot over I am going to tell the man upstairs to go easy on Lulu cause she's so hard headed."

"Heaven won't know what hit it with Lulu up there," Lucky said.

The doors opened again this time Dillion and Ned came in. "It seems that all of Lulu's brothers are here," Ned noted. "One little sister with five older brothers, I am surprised that you actually…"

"They tried, I got in a bar fight with two of them," Dante laughed. "While the third one broke up the fight."

"I am surprised that Sonny wasn't hit by lightning on his way out," Dillion said.

Dante smiled. "He's my father you know. I found out a few months ago right after he shot me point blank in the chest right after he found out I was a cop."

"Lulu dating a cop, I thought that I wouldn't live to see that day that she is with a good guy," Dillion noted.

The doors opened again and the priest entered. "Oh good, her brothers are here. There is one detail that the Quatermaines did not request. It is rather awkward to ask. Who are going to be the pallbearers?"

Lulu dabbed some green aloe vera gel she found in the medicine cabinet on her burns then covered them with some gauze. She really needed to know what was going on.

Valentin was in his office, there was a live feed of Lulu's funeral on massive plasma TV that was mounted on the wall. One of his men set it up the night before. He watched as Lulu's brothers gathered before the funeral started. He was thankful that there was even sound. The priest was asking them who was going to be the pallbearers. All of her brothers accepted the offer and her cousin Michael did when he came in the church.

Even from the television screen Valentin could tell that Dante wanted to be one of the pallbearers but relented to have Lulu's family members do so. He could see the sorrow in Dante's face as the rest of the church filled up with mourners. It looked like all of Port Charles showed up to say goodbye to the daughter of the infamous Luke and Laura.

Most of the mourners were in black. Valentin noticed that Laura came in with the rest of the Quatermaines. She was flanked by Alice and Edward as they headed inside and took the pew with all of Lulu's brothers. Sonny was the last person to enter the church and he stayed in the back. The guilt of causing Lulu's 'death' was all over his face."

To Valentin it was amusing to him that the entire town was going through all this grief and the person that they were grieving was alive and well and upstairs. Valentin didn't know what came over him the night before when he kissed her. She in all intent and purposes she was his prisoner and he did not want her to feel that way.

The door to his office opened, Valentin looked up. "What are you doing here?" Valentin asked. "If Lulu sees you it might jog her memory. That cannot happen. You need to keep out of sight if you want this to work."

His partner is crime entered the office and shut the door. "What were you thinking? I saw you two on the beach, you could not keep your hands off of her. I saw you kissing her! You are just as bad as your father a pretty face has you not thinking correctly. You know what her family has done to your father and brothers."

"Is that why you had me do your dirty work, Helena? Because you knew if anything happened to Lulu you would be the prime suspect?"

Helena laughed. "That is prosperous. You wanted to seek revenge against the Spencers, why not go after the Spencer with Cassadine DNA? Remember they all think I am afraid of you. They would never think that I will ever work with someone with the likes of you. I deserve an award for my performance."

"Still you need to remain unseen. It might be jarring to Lulu."

Helena did not leave the office; instead she turned her attention to funeral on the screen. "Hmm she has better turn out than her brother Lucky's funeral. I made Lucky watch his own funeral. Since she does not recall who she is right now it might not have the same effect like it did with her brother."

On the screen Nikolas walked up to the pulpit and began to eulogize his baby sister. Valentin turned up the volume as Nikolas recalled his first meeting of his sister in the ICU of GH. He explained that ever since that moment he wanted to protect Lulu at all costs. Like most people in Port Charles he had watched Lulu grow from a beautiful baby girl to the wonderful woman she turned out to be.

Lucky was going to go next but he was too overcome with grief to do his speech so Ethan got up to give his. He said that he only knew he was Lulu's older brother for two years but he wouldn't give up those two years for anything.

One by one most of the people in the church came up to share their favorite memories of Lulu. There was not a dry eye in the house. Even Sonny was getting choked up. It was now time to head to the cemetery. Nikolas, Lucky, Ethan, Ned, Dillion, and Michael were the pallbearers carrying the coffin to the Hurst. Dante followed closely behind with Laura on his arm.

There was a knock on the door then it opened so quickly that Helena did not have enough time to hide. Lulu came in. "Sorry to interrupt your meeting. There is something that I need to ask you Valentin."

"Sure." Valentin tried to change the channel before she noticed what was on the television but it was too late.

"Whose funeral are you watching?" Lulu asked, looking the screen.

At that moment it was when all of her family was carrying the coffin out of the church. She noticed that all the people were following it were crying uncontrollably. She felt something when she saw the Italian looking man that was following the coffin but she could not but her finger on it.

Valentin turned off the screen. "You wanted to see me about something Lulu?"

Lulu tugged the gauze off her arms. "Yeah you said we were in a car accident. Then why do I have burns? What else are you keeping from me?"