Chapter 29:

Dante took a cab home from Jake's. He stumbled home, to his surprise, Ronnie was waiting for him. "Took your sweet ass time to come home," he said.

Dante tossed his keys on the kitchen counter on his way to get another beer. "I stopped at Jake's on the way back. I had a nice conversation with Lucky there."

Ronnie sighed. "I hope Coleman didn't overhear anything."

"Relax, Jake's is neutral." Dante popped the top of his beer bottle.

"I am sorry man; I saw the baseball game the other night. It must have been painful to see her move on. Maybe it's for the best. You can get back to what is important, to bring Sonny down."

"She really hates me. She thinks I used her," Dante commented as he took a sip of his beer.

"Did you?" Ronnie ventured.

"At first, then…" Dante trailed off. "I love her Ronnie."

"She knows the truth now. What is stopping her from telling Sonny the truth? If she hates you as much as you say, she would love to see you suffer."

"She told me that she wasn't going to say a word. Don't look so excited, it is not for my benefit. She is doing it for Sonny. Lulu doesn't want to lose the only parent she has left."

Ronnie sighed. "This is messy enough as it is. I mean that Brady character was shady enough to do what he did."

"Brady is shady. I am going to have Spinelli look into him tomorrow. I just want to see for myself how shady he is."

"Are you ready to find out the answer? You might not like it," Ronnie warned.

Dante shrugged. "I already lost my girl. What else do I have to lose?"


Lulu returned to her penthouse after hours of shopping. She got Bruno's sister Bethany several things for her newborn son. Lulu tried to hand the gifts to Bruno to give to Bethany. He waved it off saying. "I know you two will get together soon and do lunch. Why don't you wait until then to give it to her?"

"Okay. I will call her later to set up a lunch date or something." Lulu said.

Bruno retired back to his apartment and Lulu went into her penthouse with her bags and bags of purchases. She thought that buying things would make her feel better but it didn't.

All she could think of was Dante.

"Why can't I stop thinking of you?" she muttered.

Her cell phone suddenly rang. She looked at the caller ID. "Hi Dad," she greeted.

"Lulu, I just got a call from a very nervous credit card company employee. There was lot of activity on your cards this afternoon. When I said a lot, it's a lot."

"Oh, I went shopping for some school outfits and some power suits when I have the internship with Diane's firm in the spring," Lulu answered. "And I got some stuff for Bruno's new little nephew."

"Is that all?" Sonny asked. "Is there something else that made you drop ten grand this afternoon?"

Lulu gasped. "I spent that much this afternoon? Sorry Dad, I had no idea."

"Don't worry about it. You need something to let out your frustrations out for the last few months," Sonny assured her. "Did Bruno give you your presents yesterday?"

Lulu nodded. "I love the ring, Sonny. Thank you. I love the necklace that Michael and Morgan got me too. You guys are the best."

"We almost lost you Lulu," Sonny said somberly. "We don't want anything else to happen to you."

"Thanks. I love you guys too. I am going to call Bruno's sister a call so I can spend sometime with her and the new baby."

"Bruno is going to like that too. He is going to get paid for spending sometime with his family."

"I think he is happy that Bethany and I are friends. I am going to go and unpack my new clothes before they get wrinkled. Love you, Dad."

"I love you, too."


The next morning, Dante went to Sonny's restaurant. Spinelli was already there sitting at a table typing away on his laptop. "Thanks for meeting me here this morning," Dante greeted as he sat across from Spinelli.

"The Jackal didn't have much of a choice did he?" Spinelli asked, taking a sip of his orange soda.

"I am just going to come out and say it. I want you to find everything you can on Brady Andrews."

Spinelli arched an eyebrow. "The Federal Prosecutor? Color me interested."

"Good. I don't know what it is, but something is off with that guy. I can't put my finger on it, but I don't trust the guy."

"Feds are slimly creatures," Spinelli offered.

"This one is extra slimy," Dante pointed out. "Look at everything, bank accounts, credit card accounts, anything. Something is wrong with that guy. I just want to figure it out before he does something else."

"What do you mean by that?" Spinelli asked.


Dante had to think of something fast and something that Spinelli was going to believe. "He could have compromised Lulu's recovery by demanding her presence back in Port Charles. Her statement she gave Detective Demestco and Detective Spencer should have been enough."

Spinelli nodded. He seemed to have bought it. "The Jackal will look into it. It may prove futile. Brady seems to be on the up and up. He broke up with the Blond One when he found out Mister Sir was her Father."

"Just keep trying, okay? There is something off with that guy," Dante said.

"What's off with whom?" Sonny asked as he came into the restaurant.

"I am having Spinelli looking into Brady's background. I don't know what it is with that guy but he makes my skin crawl," Dante explained.

"Most lawyers do that to people. But if you think something is not right with Brady, go ahead and look into it," Sonny said. "You have my permission."

"Thanks, boss," Dante said. "We will let you know if we find anything good."

"My contacts still haven't found anything about who shot my daughter. Whoever they were they are ghosts. They vanished without a trace." Sonny said somberly. "But they are still looking into it."

"Still looking at the surveillance camera in a twenty block radius," Spinelli said. "Believe it or not, Port Charles has a lot of cameras in those twenty blocks."

"Keep looking, they are bound to screw up somewhere," Dante said. "Guys like this aren't very bright."

Spinelli watched as Sonny disappeared into his office and shut the door behind him. "Are you going to tell the Jackal what is this really about? Who are you more concerned about, the Dastardly Prosecutor or the Good Doctor?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. Brady is as shady as they come," Dante said. "The shadier the better, I mean Sonny's lawyers could find out some stuff about him and get anything Brady comes up with thrown out of court."

Spinelli still typed on his computer. "Right. And the two day jaunt to Boston was for? To see the route that Paul Revere rode in his midnight ride?"

Dante shook his head. "I just wanted to see that she made to school in once piece."

"A phone call to Bruno should have sufficed," Spinelli said.

"I wanted to see that for myself. We got pretty close on the island," Dante explained. "I mean until her brothers arrived she didn't have anyone her age to talk to."

Spinelli laughed. "Yeah right, I see they way you look at her."

"What way is that?" Dante asked.

"Like you are the hunter and she is your prey," Spinelli explained. "She is the boss' only daughter. You know that, right?"

"Just try and find some dirt on Brady, will you?"

"I will but if he is as shady as you think he is, it may take some time to dig up the information," Spinelli warned.

"I don't care how long it takes; I just want to find the dirt on him."


The next morning, Lulu met Bruno's sister Bethany and her new baby Justin. They enjoyed a stroll in the square. Bruno was following behind them at a safe distance. Bethany looked over her shoulder as she pushed the stroller. She smiled at her older brother. "How do you get used to it? I mean someone following you around like that all the time," she asked.

Lulu laughed. "It has been so long, I got used to it after awhile."

"Bruno told me that he is the only guard that lasted more than a few months," Bethany pointed out. "He said that you were pretty hard on the rest of your guards."

"That is putting it mildly," Lulu admitted. "There was this one that was a SEAL that I actually made cry."

"You did not!" Bethany said.

"I did," Lulu confirmed. "But it's great that Bruno is my guard this time, we would have never had met."

Bethany smile. "And Justin wouldn't have the entire baby section of the department store."

"It would have been more if you had a girl. They make the cutest things for girls," Lulu said.

"What caused all this buying? I mean it can't be from the doctor that spent the night. It must have been that early morning visitor you had the next morning. The guard that was watching you back in Port Charles and on the island?"

"Dante," Lulu offered.

"Dante. How close did you two get on the island?" Bethany asked.

"Close enough," Lulu admitted. "Can we stop talking about Dante now?"

"Did I hit a nerve?" Bethany deduced. "Lulu, I am your friend here. I had never seen that look on your face when you spoke Brady's name when you two were dating."

"Brady is a jerk. It took me awhile to figure that one out on my own. Not one of my finest moments."

"I heard that he is investigating your Dad. I am sorry," Bethany said.

"And he had me dragged back to Port Charles with a court order to say the exact same thing I said when I was in the hospital."

Lulu found a bench and sat down on hit. Bethany looked concerned. "Are you okay? Do you need a doctor? Is it your heart?"

"You just gave birth a few days ago and you are worried about me?" Lulu asked.

Bethany sat on the bench next to Lulu after maneuvering the stroller next to the bench. "I wasn't the one that nearly bled out of the front seat of the limo. Are you okay?"

"I am fine," Lulu assured her. "I just wanted to sit down for a bit."

"I need to be completely honest with you, I never liked Brady. I thought that you could do so much better. I don't know what it was, to me there seemed something off with him."

"I can see that now. I was so blind back then," Lulu said.

"You weren't mine, you were smitten. Come on Lulu, he was the first relationship that Sonny didn't try to ruin before it began. You told me about Sonny cleaning his shotgun when you first took a guy home."

"You should have been his face. He looked like he crapped his pants when Sonny told me if he was late dropping me off, there will be hell to pay," Lulu said.

"What are you going to do, with the situation that you are in?" Bethany asked.

"Right now, I need to concentrate on school."

"Your internship is in Port Charles working for your Dad's lawyers, right? I hope you figure it out by then."


The next few months were a whirlwind for Lulu. It was October before she knew it. She was extremely busy with school. She threw herself into her studies, bringing up her great GPA to a stellar GPA.

She tried to talk with Matt when she could. She refused to take any of Dante's calls or she didn't respond to any of his messages, nor to any of Lucky or Nikolas' calls.

If Bruno didn't pay someone to keep her kitchen stocked with food she would have not had eaten anything healthy. The only thing she looked forward to was the baseball playoff game with the Yankees and Red Sox in the Division Series. The winner of the series will play the Cleveland Indians in the American League Champion Series. The winner of the series would go on to the World Series.

The Yankees had a three to one game lead in the best of seven series. Game five was going to be in Boston. Lulu got tickets and Matt was flying in the next day to watch the game with her.

She was studying in her home office when her cell phone rang. She checked the caller ID before answering. "Hey Matt, how are you doing?"

"I am great; I am actually packing right now. I checked the weather, its going to be chilly."

"I guess we have to pack a blanket and try to keep each other warm," Lulu said.

"I like the sound of that," Matt said. "I can't wait to see you, Lulu. The last couple of months had been torture. How is school coming?"

"I got to write a couple of papers this weekend. I should get it done before you come," Lulu explained. "After that, I need the break. This game is all what I needed."

"Good you need to have some fun. I better let you get back to your studies. I will talk to you later."

Matt hung up.

Lulu hung up her phone and went into kitchen to get a snack. As hard as she tried to forget about Dante, he was getting harder and harder to forget. He was like he became apart of her.


Dante looked at the latest surveillance photos that Lance LaRocca provided him with. It was just photographs of Lulu going to and fro from class, studying at the library and there was one that Lulu was dining with a woman her age with a small baby. She must have been Bruno's younger sister and nephew.

He felt like he overstepped a line by having someone else watching Lulu, but it was all in order to keep her safe.

He heard the elevator doors open. Ronnie same out, he saw what he was looking at. "You are still hung up on her? It has been what two months?"

"It's been a little over two months," Dante corrected.

"And why are you still doing this? Has the computer nerd found anything on the slimy Federal Prosecutor?"

"See even you think he is slime!" Dante closed the file folder he had the pictures in.

"I give you that. The guy is shady but there is nothing to prove that is dirty. He must be covering his tracks pretty well if the best hacker can't find anything on him," Ronnie pointed out.

"Why are you here, Ronnie?" Dante asked.

"How is the case coming alone? I mean it's been almost a year since you been in Sonny's organization."

"I am working on it."

"You are working harder to get your girl back than you are on this case," Ronnie pointed out.

"It's not like that, Ronnie. I am trying to get the info but Sonny is keeping a lot of it to himself."

"Why?" Ronnie demanded. "It sounds to me that he is up to something. Keep your eyes on him."

"Fine I will," Dante agreed. "Are you coming over on Saturday to watch the ball game or what?"

"I will bring the beer, you provide the snacks. Maybe the game will finally get your mind off Lulu Spencer."

"Nothing is going to do that," Dante admitted. "I am going to keep think of her until I get her back."


Matt looked at a medical chart before he handed it off to Patrick. "Make sure the patient is comfortable. I hate to come back after this weekend and Mrs. Greene complains to me that my brother didn't take good care of her."

"Don't listen to him Patrick," Robin said. "Your little brother is just a little nervous that he is going to spend a second weekend with a girl."

"Ahhh," Patrick muttered. "And you are hoping that you aren't going to be banished to the guest room, right?"

"Am I that transparent?" Matt asked.

"As a ghost," Patrick smirked. "I think it's about time. You two been dating for awhile now. You have been hell to deal with since Lulu left for Boston."

Matt turned a deep shade of red. "I am a gentleman. I was waiting for the right time. I mean most of our dates ended with me getting called in to the hospital. The last time I visited her, we never actually finished a date. Now, that I am going to be out of state, which is not going to happen again."

"So you are a gentleman, since when?" Patrick asked.

Matt handed off the file. "Goodbye. I will see you in a few days."

Patrick reached in his pocket, tossing something to his brother. Matt caught it. It was a box of condoms. "You need to be safe, little bro. We don't want Sonny to kill you for getting his little girl pregnant. I hope I got you the right size. I really don't know how big…"

"That may make Sonny more desirable to the female population of Port Charles. Can you imagine him with a little baby strapped to his chest? He is already a chick magnet. Having him watching his grandchild is going to make him even more desirable," Robin added.

"Ha, ha, ha. You two are hilarious," Matt placed the box in his pocket. "You should do stand up. I am leaving now. See you in a few days."

Matt headed towards the locker-room.

"Have fun Matty!" Patrick called after his brother. "Remember, wrap it up if you are going to use your…"

"Disco Stick," Robin added, with a sly grin.

Patrick laughed and he high-fived his wife. "That's a good one!"

Matt laughed as he headed into the locker room. He hoped that this weekend was going to be memorable.

And he wasn't talking about the baseball game.


A/N- I still have a plan! You have to hang in there!