A/N – Okay, so this chapter is short, but it sets up the action that is about to take place. Thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing! Your comments keep me going!

Chapter 11 – The Whole Truth

Lulu lay in her bedroom at the Quartermaine mansion. She was still thinking about Johnny. This was nothing new. Not thinking about Johnny was out of the ordinary. She had gone to the media room earlier to distract herself with a movie, but Johnny was there too. He was everywhere. Lulu had taken him to all of her favorite places and they had become their places.

In the week since Johnny had left Port Charles, Lulu had done a lot of thinking about Johnny's involvement in Lucky's shooting. Most of her thinking was probably irrational. Part of her, her heart, was clinging to hope that Johnny was somehow innocent. That he hadn't been lying about his feelings for her. That his father had been responsible and Johnny had really been kept in the dark.

Once Lulu had gotten over the initial shock of Johnny's supposed betrayal, she had really thought everything through. Some things just didn't add up. Why would Johnny come to Port Charles to take over and make a move, only to go back to Italy as soon as his move had been made? That didn't make sense.

The more Lulu thought about it, the more her heart hurt. She was in love with Johnny. She knew that now. If he was innocent and she pushed him away, he would never forgive her. She needed to know the truth. Lulu needed to know if she had been wrong. Because even if forgiveness was unlikely, she would go to Italy to beg him for it. Anything to get another chance at love with him.

Lulu pulled out her phone and sent Spinelli a message saying, "Is there proof that Johnny was the specific person in charge of the men who shot Lucky?"

Lulu waited what felt like forever. Spinelli was excellent with computers, but his text skills were lacking. He was probably busy and didn't notice the message. Lulu was about to give up and call when her own phone beeped, indicating she received a message.

"No, Fair One," was the simple reply.

Lulu felt her heart soar a little. It was possible that she had been wrong. Maybe Johnny and her love for him wasn't a loss. Maybe happiness did exist for her.

"I need the truth. Find out who ordered everything that day. I have a feeling it wasn't Johnny," Lulu smiled while sending the message.

There was a chance, however small, that things would work out.

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Spinelli had been working for about an hour. Ever since Lulu had sent him the message suggesting Johnny's innocence, Spinelli had been trying to focus on finding out any minor details about the warehouse explosion. He was having a hard time given his guilt over the situation. He had been solely responsible for breaking Lulu's heart and that was hurting him. Spinelli realized now that he should have done more research before telling Lulu, but at the time, he was so angry. That was no excuse. He needed to find the truth now to make things right.

Spinelli found the name of one of the men Jason had killed the night after the warehouse explosion. He recognized him from the security tapes as the man who had shot Lucky. According to Jason, he had paid heavily for what he had done.

Spinelli tapped into his phone records and was shocked by what he found. Every call he made in the days leading up to the explosion was to Italy. Not one call had been made to Johnny's phone. This basically exonerated Johnny, but Spinelli did not want to give false information again. Johnny could have been routing information through someone else.

He pulled Johnny's phone records from the Metro Court and his cell phone. Only three numbers had been called. Spinelli recognized his own number and Lulu's. The third he traced and found Johnny's sister, Claudia. Johnny had called her once and it had not been a long call. There was no way in the short phone call so many days before the night of the explosion that Johnny had ordered it or been told about it.

Spinelli was overjoyed. He had to tell Lulu. He had to tell Jason. He had to figure out who was really responsible. He had to do a lot of things. Most of all, Spinelli took a breath and smiled. Maybe things would work out for Johnny and Lulu after all.

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Claudia slammed her head against the wall. Johnny was screaming again. She wondered if he was awake or asleep this time. He had been in Italy a week and Claudia was ready to send him back to Port Charles to this Lulu. Maybe she could calm him down.

In the past week, he had drunk any alcohol he could get his hands on. He had nightmares that he awoke from screaming in pain. During the day, in the rare times he wasn't drinking, he was in his gym beating the hell out of any punching bag that got in his way. One night, Claudia found him at his piano. It was almost midnight and he had apparently finished all the alcohol in the house. He was sitting with tears streaming down his face and playing the saddest song she had ever heard. That's when Claudia knew he was broken.

She knew there was only one way to fix it and that was for her to be honest. She had gone to Anthony intending on informing him that she was telling Johnny the truth no matter what he said. However, a threat on her life had kept her from doing that. Now, Claudia crept down the hall towards Johnny's room. She leaned her ear against the door in time to hear a glass slam against it. He was awake.

Claudia knocked softly on the door and she got no reply. She knocked louder and she heard him grunt at her. He had probably said go away, but instead she slowly opened the door and stuck her head through. Johnny sat on the floor in the middle of a pile of broken glass. The knuckles on his right hand were bleeding and in his left hand, he clutched a picture. Claudia walked carefully toward him and placed a cautious hand on his shoulder.

"John?" she questioned quietly.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" Johnny asked, motioning towards the picture of the girl Claudia assumed to be Lulu.

"That's her?" Claudia wondered out loud and Johnny nodded.

"My beautiful," Johnny said sadly. "That's what I always called her. I did everything I knew how and it still wasn't enough. I still lost her. Why?"

"I don't think it was your fault," Claudia replied.

Guilt was overcoming her. Death threat or not, how could she sit by and watch her brother like this? He hadn't shaved since coming home and the showers were few and far between. All he did was drink, scream and even cry. Something he hadn't done, in Claudia's presence at least, in years. This wasn't good for him. He deserved better and Claudia was on the verge of telling him the truth.

"It was," Johnny lamented. "She deserved better anyway. She deserved the world and I could never have given that to her. I couldn't give her anything. I was living in this fantasy land. She made me believe in happily ever afters and those don't exist. Not for Zaccharas. Especially not this Zacchara."

"John, you will have a happily ever after," Claudia assured him. "Maybe it wasn't meant to be with Lulu."

"Lulu," Johnny said her name as if it was a lifeline. "You were right, Claudia. I love her. She's the love of my life, but I didn't realize it in time."

"What can I do, John?" Claudia asked filled with pain.

"Unless you have the answers that will lead to me getting Lulu back, there is nothing you can do," Johnny yelled in anger and left the room.

Claudia knew what she had to do. Her life was meaningless if Johnny wasn't happy. He needed Lulu and Claudia was going to give him what he needed to get her back. She walked out of the room in search of Johnny.

The whole truth had to come out.