A/N: Short and sweet. Those are the two words that I have for this epilogue. I'm not sure if I like how this turned out but I just really wanted to get this out to you guys! So, I am disappearing for a bit as I recharge my creative juices. I do plan on writing at least one JoLu one-shot before I crank out my next long series, which I'm really excited about. So here's the last part of Broken Vow! I hope you guys like it and thank you for staying on this wild journey with me. You guys are the best!

Epilogue

Today was the beginning of the rest of her life.

Lulu exhaled and opened her eyes slowly. Who was that girl that was looking back at her in her vanity mirror? Her hair was perfectly curled and pinned with a white flower and her mother's antique diamond hairpins. Around her neck was a beautiful turquoise necklace with matching earrings. However, it wasn't the hair or the jewelry that made her reflection seem foreign.

The woman staring back at her seemed happy.

There was a smile that she hadn't been able to get rid of for three months and her eyes just seemed to be a bit brighter than they used to be. Maybe it wouldn't have been such a noticeable change to a regular person but Lulu could definitely see the change in herself.

"Miss Spencer! Telephone for you!"

Lulu recognized Marco's voice calling for her to answer the phone. She closed her white silk robe, stood up and went to the nightstand and picked up the phone, pressing it to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked.

"I know that today's the day… just wanted to call you and wish you good luck…"

She smiled at the sound of her brother's voice. Some people may have thought that she forgave Nikolas too easily for what he had done to break her and Johnny up but she was too happy to hold a grudge for that long and the distance between the two of them helped ease the tension between the siblings.

"Thanks, Nik… that means a lot to me…" she said.

"So I assume that you're going to be staying in Milan permanently…" Nikolas said.

"Yeah, the last of my boxes are coming in sometime this week…" she said.

"I don't blame you for ditching Port Charles… the weather here sucks compared to that gorgeous Mediterranean weather…" he said.

She rose from her seat at her vanity mirror and walked across the room. The French doors that led out to the small balcony were open and let in the beautiful sunlight from outside. As she looked around at hills that were lush and green, she couldn't help but to smile. She had never been this happy before. She was in the perfect place with the most perfect man for her by her side. It hardly seemed that it was just a few short months ago that she wasn't even certain that she would ever be happy again.

She was so glad that she was proven wrong.

"So are you nervous?" he asked.

"You know what? I'm not actually… I feel like my entire life has just been leading up to this moment and now that it's here, I'm just at peace because I know that this is how things are supposed to be." Lulu said.

"You know that I'm so happy for you… I just wish I could watch my little sister get married… but today is about you and Johnny… and Claudia is skeptical about air travel in her condition…" he said.

She paused at her brother's words. What did Nikolas mean by 'condition'? However, the answer dawned quickly on Lulu and she gasped, making Nikolas chuckle softly on the other end of the call.

"Nikolas? Is—Is Claudia—" she stammered.

"Yes, Claudia is pregnant…" Nikolas said, unable to hide his excitement.

"Oh my god! That's so exciting! Congratulations!" she squealed.

"Claudia is ecstatic and so is Spencer. He can't wait to be a big brother…" he said.

"And what about you?" she asked.

"I couldn't be happier…" he said.

And she truly was. She was glad that Claudia and Nikolas were able to get past everything because they loved each other and deserved to be happy.

Just like she and Johnny.

She sighed contently as her mind flitted to thoughts of her fiancé. She could picture him waiting for her on the terrace in a white button up shirt, with the first two or three buttons unbuttoned of course, looking like he walked straight out of a romance novel.

Her own romantic hero.

"Well, I don't want to keep you… your groom awaits…" he said.

Lulu looked down at her watch and gasped. She was running late.

"Oh my god, you're right. I have to run… but Johnny said that we would swing by Port Charles after our honeymoon… and I know that he'll especially want to go when he hears that he's going to be an uncle…" she said.

"We'd love to have the two of you…" he said.

"Ok, I'll speak with you later then…" she said.

"Good luck… and I love you, Lulu…" he said.

Her posture straightened at the sound of her brother's words. She had shunned Nikolas' I love you's for a while but the time and the distance between them was starting to heal the wounds and each time he said the words, the bitterness and the anger began to chip away. It took her a while but it was the first time in months where she didn't cringe at those three words. Now that she had everything that she could ever want, she didn't have it in her to be angry with him anymore. Not when she was completely in love with life and her fiancé.

She had finally found the strength to forgive.

"I love you too…" she whispered.

The sun shone brightly overhead as Johnny stood on the terrace. There wasn't even a slightest wisp of a cloud in the sky as he looked out towards the horizon. He should've been nervous about today. Any man would be nervous on the day of his wedding but he wasn't. He was surprisingly calm. After all of the torment that he had been through during the past two years, the shattered pieces of his life were slowly starting to fall back into place.

"Johnny?"

He turned around and his heart stopped when his eyes fell to his betrothed. Her golden curls that he could spend hours running his hands through were pinned back so that he could see every inch of her lovely face. Her skin was sun-kissed, a product of the two of them lounging about outside for the past two weeks, partaking in the beautiful weather. She wore a simple strapless floor length white dress with the turquoise necklace that he had bought for her recently.

"Come here…" he whispered, extending his hand out to his stunning bride.

She smiled and let her hand slip into his delicately and he pulled her to him. The past three months that they had been together had been so wonderful that he held onto Lulu just a little bit tighter everyday to make sure that he wasn't dreaming.

"Carla was so excited about the wedding that she made this impromptu bouquet for me…" she said, holding up a small bundle of white flowers.

"They're beautiful… and so are you…" he said.

His fingertips gently traced the curve of her cheek and she smiled. Every single time that he looked at her, he felt his heart sing inside of his chest. He never thought that he would be the one to fall to pieces over some girl but when he looked at her, all he could think about was how he couldn't not fall for her.

"Are you certain that you want to do this? We can wait if you want…" she said but he shook his head.

"No… I've waited too long for you... and I don't want to spend another day without you as my wife…" he whispered.

His forehead was pressed against hers and her arms were wrapped around his neck. He cupped her face in his hands and inched in to kiss her. She smiled and turned her lips away from his, chuckling softly.

"Not until the priest says so…" she muttered.

"Well then, we shouldn't keep him waiting…" he said.

Johnny turned towards the terrace doors and beckoned an older man towards the two of them. Johnny and Lulu held hands as the priest started to conduct the marriage ceremony. He could barely even pay attention to the priest's words because he was so entranced by Lulu's beautiful amber orbs as they stared straight back into his eyes.

"Would you like traditional vows or would you like to speak freely?" the priest asked.

He snapped out of his trance and opened his mouth to say that they would like traditional vows. The traditional ones would be faster and all he wanted to do was hear the words that would declare that Lulu was his forever.

"I have something that I would like to say…" she said before Johnny could utter a word.

The priest nodded and Johnny's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He had definitely not prepared anything to say but he held onto her hands as she let out a small breath and smiled.

"My life truly began three and a half years ago… I found myself walking on the side of a deserted road in the middle of the night and this beautiful vintage yellow Mustang pulled up next to me and then I saw the most gorgeous man that I've ever laid eyes on behind the wheel… brooding, cocky and extremely rough around the edges…" she started.

Johnny laughed as he remembered that night when they first met. They had been so different back then. He had been so different. He thought that he didn't need anybody but he had been so wrong. He needed her like he needed air in his lungs to breathe.

"But the more I got to know him, the harder I fell… until one day, he became my entire life… and after everything that has happened, after all of the bumps in the road to get here, I realized that I wouldn't have changed a thing because it's made me love him even more." Lulu said.

He felt her hands grip his tighter as her voice began to crack, letting her emotions slowly take over. Her eyes were bright and glassy, filled with tears not of sadness but of joy and of love. He had made her cry so much in the years that they had been together and this was the only time when he had actually been glad that he had brought her to tears.

"And I am so grateful that we have a second chance at a life together. I promise to never take that for granted and I promise to love you until the day that I die, Johnny Zacchara…" she said.

If he could've, he would've kissed her right there and then but since it wasn't the proper time, he just held her hand tighter, commanding his willpower to just last until the priest gave the ok for him to do so. He swallowed hard upon realizing that it was his turn to speak. He was replaying all of the moments from their life in his head as he racked his mind for the perfect thing to say.

"Three and a half years ago, I was in a dark place… I was trying so hard not to succumb to my inner demons and that all changed when I saw this girl… the most breathtakingly beautiful girl that I had ever laid eyes on hitchhiking on the side of the road." Johnny started.

Lulu laughed and he could see that young girl that she had once been when he first met her. She still had the same sparkle in her eye and the same passion that ruled her heart and that he felt every single time that she was near him.

"From the moment that I met her, I knew that she would be the one to change my life. She believed in me when I didn't believe in myself and loved me when I didn't think that I was worthy of love… and she still believes in me and loves me today and that makes me want to be a better person… and with her by my side, I know that I can be…" he said.

His voice began to crack and he bit his bottom lip. In all honesty, he didn't think that any words could adequately summarize the love that he felt for Lulu. In some way, he thought that if he tried to articulate it, it would somehow diminish the degree to which he loved her. She reached out and brushed a tear from his cheek that he didn't even know that he had shed. Upon feeling her hand on his face, he held her other hand tighter as he continued on with his vows.

"I promise to hold onto you through both the good and the bad and I promise to never let you not know how much I love you, Lulu Spencer…" he said.

They carefully exchanged rings, slipping on the platinum bands onto each other's fingers, where they would presumably stay for the rest of their days. The priest, after hearing Johnny and Lulu's heartfelt vows, let out a deep sigh and put his hand on his heart.

"I've heard many vows in my lifetime and I must say that those have to be some of the best ones I have heard in a long time… I now pronounce you, husband and wife…" the priest said.

"Can I kiss her now?" Johnny asked and the priest laughed.

"If I were you, I would…" he said.

Johnny pressed his lips to Lulu's, letting his hands come to her waist as her arms wrapped around his neck. After everything that they had been through, it was nothing less than a miracle that they were able to stand before each other and pledge their lives to each other. If put in their shoes, most people would've given up, not being able to handle the heartache. But the pain is always the worst before the healing and all things that are broken get rebuilt into stronger and better versions of themselves.

They would be stronger this time.

The promises that they made to each other would hold, each embrace would be tighter, each kiss a bit fiercer. Like they had promised each other, everything would be better and stronger than before.

And those vows would never be broken.

I'd give away my soul
To hold you once again
And never let this promise end

I let you go
I let you fly
Now that I know I'm asking why
I let you go
Now that I found
A way to keep somehow
More than a broken vow

"Broken Vow" – Josh Groban

THE END