Sitting back of the limousine on the way to the airport, Lulu felt more restless than she had anticipated. Her leg was quivering, foot tapping an erratic tempo as the vehicle made its way along the silvery Port Charles streets. Gripping her small silver phone in her hand, she turned it over and over in her closed palm. Beside her, Dillon was looking out the window, surprised that he didn't feel an ounce of doubt. "I have to call them," she said suddenly, breaking him out of his haze. "I know that they're not going to be able to come with us, but I have to tell at least one of them before I leave town. I wouldn't be able to forgive Lucky if he did it without telling me. I owe him the same thing."
He smiled at her slowly, somewhat jealous that he didn't have that sort of relationship with his own brother. At best, his family was tolerate of each other most of the time, though deep love had a way of rearing its head when necessary. "Call him," he ordered softly. "They're going to be my family now, too. I don't want to start this off on the wrong foot. Do you think we should call our parents?"
"My dad will be fine if he finds out later. Your mom, on the other hand, could be more of an issue. I think I'll leave that one up to you."
"Thanks," he retorted sarcastically. He contemplated reaching for his backpack on the floorboard but decided against it. She could find out with the rest of them. Leaning back into the plush leather seat, he was thankful once again that he had been born with the Quartermaine name. While most of the time he'd rather deny his namesake, it was nice to have luxuries like a limo at times like these. Their chauffer had been happy to pick them up once he'd explained the situation and sworn him to secrecy.
Lulu flipped open the phone and dialed Lucky's number from memory. She felt slightly guilty at the late hour but knew that he would be happy she'd called once he found out her news. A moment later, a sleepy woman answered his cell phone, slightly throwing her off for a minute. "Emily?"
"Lulu? Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?" she asked worriedly, her voice thick with exhaustion. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm not calling you," Lulu answered. "I dialed Lucky's number."
"I must have answered the wrong phone," she apologized. "Hold on a second, let me wake him up."
She could hear the muffled sound of Emily trying to wake up her brother, a man famous for his ability to sleep through anything. Miraculously, it didn't take long for the medical student to wake him as she heard his voice on the other end of the line a few seconds later. "Lu, what's wrong?" he asked immediately. She couldn't believe how awake he sounded.
"Nothing is wrong, Lucky," she promised. "I just wanted to call and let you know something before I did it."
"What have you got yourself into?"
"Something good," she bubbled. "Dillon and I are on our way to the airport. We're going to take the ELQ plane out tonight to Vegas. We're going to get married."
"You're going to what?!?" he nearly screamed into the phone, his tone more angry than she had expected. "You can't just run off to Las Vegas, Lu. You have a family session in the morning. Besides, you haven't thought this through. I don't know if now is the best time for you to get married."
"You don't have to know, Lucky, I already do," she shot back. "We'll be back by tomorrow afternoon, plenty of time for me to make my appointment. Marrying Dillon is all I have thought about for the past year, even when we weren't together. I'm ready."
"I can't believe he is taking advantage of you like this," he grumbled.
"Lucky, how could you say that? You know that Dillon loves me. He would never do anything like that. This was my idea. If you're looking to blame someone, blame me. Call me erratic, call me crazy, call me whatever you want. Just know that I am going to come back a married woman. I am going to be Dillon's wife."
"Let me talk to him."
"No."
"Lesley Lu Spencer, put him on the telephone now."
"You can't talk to him," she argued. "Don't tell me what to do."
"Give me the phone," Dillon whispered, reaching for the handset. Smiling at Lulu assuredly, he started to address his future brother-in-law. "Lucky, I know that you're thinking this is a spur of the moment thing, but it's really not. Lulu and I have been talking about this since we got together. Now is the right time."
"She's sick, Dillon. Do you really think that this is the best time for her to be making life altering decisions? She hadn't even talked to Dr. Winters about this. There is so much to consider. You two just can't run away like this."
"We're hardly running away. Look, I didn't even want to tell anyone, but Lulu insisted that she tell you before she left. She cared about you enough to want your blessing. Love her enough in return to give her that. Lucky, she doesn't need a lecture or your permission; she just wants you to be there for her."
"I am there for her," he countered. "I've been there for her every single day of her life. I just don't want to see her throw her life away because she gets caught up in something. And I don't want to see you walk away from her if something goes wrong and she ends up like my mother. It's not fair to anyone."
"I can't even think like that because it isn't going to happen. I am incredibly in love with your sister, and I am going to spend the rest of my life proving it to her," Dillon stated. "We're doing this."
"Then, I want to come with you. My sister shouldn't get married without her family there. She needs someone to walk her down the aisle, and you could use a best man. I'll even bring Em along to be maid of honor."
"Bring Emily where?" he heard his cousin ask tiredly.
"We're going to Vegas with you. Give us a half-hour, and we'll meet you at the airport," he ordered before the line went dead.
Closing the phone, he looked over at Lulu confusedly. "I think we're going to have a little company on our trip," he revealed. "Lucky just insisted that he and Emily join us in Vegas. He doesn't want you to do this alone, but I'm afraid he just wants to talk us out of it."
She shook her head. "Emily wouldn't let him," she proclaimed. "And even if she did, it wouldn't even be possible. There is no one that could talk me out of marrying you, Dil. I told you before, this is what I want. You are what I want. Hell, you're all that I have ever wanted."
Crawling across the seat toward her, he closed the space between him as he wrapped her in his arms. "You're all that I'm ever going to want," he promised. "I'm glad your brother is going to go. I want him to see how in love with each other we are. It's the only way he is ever going to accept us together."
Emily pulled a black turtleneck over her head, her chestnut hair cascading around her face. "Lucky, calm down, Lulu is not going to leave without you. She cared enough to call you, so you need to trust her."
"You don't understand, you don't have any younger siblings. She is my responsibility. I promised my mom that I would take care of her."
"Is that what this is about?" she asked Lucky. He wasn't listening to her as he started to throw items into a leather bag. "Lucky, stop and listen to me."
"Huh?" he muttered distractedly. She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "Emily, I don't have time for this. We have to go meet my sister. She needs me."
"Talk to me now or don't talk to me for the next week," she threatened. Her voice was hollow and deadly serious. Relenting, he stopped packing and fell back onto the bed. "Are you afraid you're going to lose your place in Lulu's life if she marries Dillon?"
"That's crazy. I'm her brother, he's her boyfriend. They're hardly the same thing."
"I'm aware of that, Lucky, but you wouldn't be the most important man in her life anymore if they got married. I think that's a scary thing for you," she explained. "You're worried, and so you're reacting like this."
"I just want to take care of my sister. I don't want her to see a huge mistake, especially when she is so vulnerable of everything else. I'm not thinking of myself right now. My mind is completely focused on what's best for Lu. We've all put her through so much, including Dillon. I couldn't stand to see this backfire and push her over the edge."
"Why are you expecting the worst?"
"My mother," he stated simply. "If I've learned anything, it's that sometimes life happens whether you're ready for it or not. I watched the most beautiful, vibrant woman I've ever known completely fall apart in front of my eyes. The mother that loved and raised me became someone who can barely function. She has no idea what is going on; she's missed out on her life. I don't want to see my baby sister go through the same thing. She has the potential to do so much with her life, but if she loses it, that will all go away. She won't get to be a wife to Dillon, an aunt to Cam and Spencer or a mother to her own children someday. I – my entire family – we need for her to be okay. We've already lost too much."
"Lulu is going to be okay if you are there to love and support her, Lucky," she proclaimed. "She has so many people that love her, and Dillon happens to be one of those people. Even if this doesn't work and their marriage fails someday, I believe that Lulu can get through it. She will have you and Nikolas to help her. And she will have Elizabeth and me, even if everything isn't perfect between us all."
"I'm not going to try to stop her," he promised, "but I have to be there with her. It's important to me to be there for Lu. I want to walk her down the aisle, I want to see her say her vows. They need to have family there, and we both happen to fit that bill."
"I'll support you in whatever you want to do," she professed. "However, if you even try to talk her out of it, I will have you escorted out of there as quickly as possible. You are not going to ruin your sister's wedding day, no matter how you feel about it. I love you more than anything, so I hope you'll understand that this is for your own good."
Lucky grimaced, sure that her heart was in the right place but afraid that she was wrong about everything. It didn't matter how much he wanted to believe that everything would be okay, he would always worry that they could lose her. Even if her marriage to Dillon was successful, she could still be at risk. When it came down to it, he knew that it didn't matter what was going on around her. It was what was going on in her head that would draw her to the dark side.