Because Nadine was going to spend Thanksgiving with Nikolas and Spencer, she asked if she could take Kendra for the night. Spinelli agreed and she was the first to leave, carrying Kendra and the diaper bag with her. Everyone congratulated him and Georgie as they left. Jason gave Spinelli a significant look and then glanced at Lulu. Spinelli looked in her direction and saw what he'd feared. The Blonde One's silence was leading to an explosion, the calm before the storm. Georgie saw, too, and moved closer to Spinelli.
Dillon had known; he'd sensed Lulu's pressure building to boiling point. He didn't even think about leaving, and he was glad Jason was going to stay, too. They all might need help if Lulu went as ballistic as Dillon feared.
Jason thought maybe he could defuse the situation before it got out of hand if he approached Lulu first.
You OK, Lulu ?You've been pretty quiet.
"Tell the truth," she said furiously through clenched teeth, glaring at Georgie.
"The truth about what?"
"Tell Spinelli you're not really pregnant!"
"She is," Spinelli said.
"Spinelli, Maxie faked a pregnancy to hold on to Lucky!"
"That was Maxie, not Georgie," Jason said.
"Georgie would never even think of doing that," Dillon said.
"She's not faking," Spinelli said.
"Of course she is!"
She moved to try to put her hand on Spinelli's shoulder, but he stepped away angrily.
"Spinelli, she's copying from Maxie."
"You mean like you tried to copy from Carly?" Georgie demanded, anger and hormones getting the better of her.
"You shut up!"
"Don't talk to her like that," Spinelli and Dillon said.
Lulu felt sorry for Spinelli, but she knew it couldn't be true. Georgie could not be pregnant. If she was pregnant, Lulu had no chance with Spinelli. He would want to be a family with Georgie, the new baby and Kendra. Georgie had to be faking. Why not? Her sister did. That had to be it. Georgie was faking a pregnancy in order to trap Spinelli and make sure Lulu never got him back.
"Spinelli, I'm sorry, but the sooner you face the truth, the better off you'll be."
"The truth is that Georgie is pregnant with my second baby."
Georgie wasn't going to take anymore. She was not going to stand here and be accused of deceiving Spinelli. She loved him; Lulu didn't even know the true meaning of the word.
Lulu loved whoever satisfied her requirements at the time. She had supposedly loved Johnny and Logan and now she was trying to convince Spinelli to love her because he was the only guy who had not deserted her. But she had treated him horribly for months and Georgie would not allow her to do that again.
"When are you gonna grow up, Lulu?" she demanded. "When are you gonna learn that you're not the center of the universe? What gives you the right to expect Spinelli or anyone else to scrap their plans and do everything you tell them? Spinelli's onto you now and he's not gonna fall for your crap anymore! He proved that when he shredded that tabloid article and threw you out!"
Jason's eyebrows went up, but he said nothing. Spinelli and Georgie didn't notice his confusion; they all seemed to have forgotten he was there. But he knew instinctively that leaving would be a very bad idea.
"How many secrets are you keeping from Spinelli?" Lulu demanded.
"None!"
"Then you told him that you know about Jake?"
Georgie looked away and Spinelli looked confused. Jason fought his alarm. Spinelli obviously had not told Georgie about Jake; if he had, his guilty expression would have given him away. Besides, Lulu had indicated that Spinelli didn't know Georgie knew. If that was what Lulu meant, Georgie had found out some other way.
"Yeah," Lulu said to him, "she knows Jake is Jason's son."
Dillon looked startled.
"How?" Spinelli asked incredulously.
"Well," Lulu said to Georgie, "tell him if you keep no secrets from him!"
Georgie looked directly at him. He could see that she was worried.
"You slipped up when you were delirious from the Asian Ague. You were worried that Sonny was gonna take Kendra from you and you mentioned Jake and Jason."
"Oh no!"
He looked at Jason, mortified.
"Stone Cold, I'm sorry; I-"
"You couldn't help it; you didn't know what you were saying. We're just lucky it was only Georgie and Lulu here when you were sick."
"So much for not keeping secrets," Lulu scoffed.
"I didn't want you to blame yourself if anything happened to Jake later," Georgie told Spinelli. "But even more, Lulu explained why it had to be kept a secret. I didn't wanna be the cause of Jake being in danger."
"Who's to say you weren't?" Lulu asked venomously. "How do we know you didn't say anything to The Russians and-"
"That's enough! Shut up, Lulu! I'm warning you!"
"What are you gonna do about it?"
Georgie moved towards her; part of her knew she shouldn't, but the angry and hormonal side of her didn't care. Spinelli held her back and Dillon flanked her other side, ready to grab her if she broke free from Spinelli. But she didn't try. She knew going after Lulu would be a dangerously stupid thing to do even before Spinelli spoke.
"Georgie, don't; you could endanger the baby!"
He was right. She relaxed. Lulu turned to Jason as Spinelli released Georgie and Dillon took a few steps away from the couple, getting out of their personal space now that the danger seemed to have past.
"Maybe you should question her and find out if she told anyone. If Maxie could fake a pregnancy and a miscarriage, why wouldn't her sister endanger a real child?"
"All right, Lulu," Dillon said angrily, using the tone a grownup uses with a difficult child, "now you're just being petty and ridiculous."
"At least I don't play several guys against the others and deliberately shatter the heart of the one who really loves me!"
Lulu slapped her as hard as she could. Georgie had no right to throw her choices in her face. She was faking this pregnancy and Lulu was going to make Spinelli see that if it was the last thing she did. Georgie was not going to hold on to Spinelli. Lulu was going to expose her and Spinelli was going to dump her and choose to be with Lulu, the one who really loved him. She was going to make him forget all about the lying little witch who had deliberately taken advantage of his vulnerability and come between them.
The slap sent Georgie back a couple of steps. Spinelli put a hand on her shoulder to steady her as Lulu screamed at her.
"You trapped him! You're as bad as your sister! You faked a pregnancy to trap Spinelli just like Maxie tried to trap Lucky!"
"What is wrong with you?" Spinelli demanded, looking daggers at Lulu. "She's pregnant and you're slapping her? She could have fallen!"
"There is no baby, Spinelli! She's faking; that's what she and Maxie-"
"Stop it, Lulu," Dillon said furiously, stepping between Lulu and the couple, "right now!"
"I was there, OK?" Spinelli said. "I was right there in the hospital with her when Dr. Lee told us. Georgie is pregnant!"
Jason appeared at Georgie's side and handed her an ice pack for her cheek.
"Thank you," she said, surprised.
They had all forgotten he was there; he was so quiet, watching intently, but ready to interfere if necessary. She hadn't even seen him go into the kitchen. Jason nodded.
"You don't have to do this," Lulu pleaded with Spinelli. "You don't have to let her force you into-"
"She's not forcing me into anything. We talked it over. This baby is wanted as much as Kendra. We're gonna raise these babies together, and if you keep this up you're gonna lose The Jackal forever! Do you want me to terminate our friendship permanently?"
"No, of course I don't want that!"
"Then stop acting as if you own me! Stop living under the delusion that you and I are gonna magically end up together just because that's what you want! Life doesn't work that way; you taught me that when you decided Logan was better than me! My life, my future, is with Georgie! I'm not gonna have this conversation with you again, so get it through your head!"
Just then, the song All Out of Love by Air Supply came on the radio, which had been forgotten. Spinelli left it on frequently, tuned to an easy listening station, because Kendra loved music. Lulu listened briefly, staring at Spinelli and Georgie, entertaining a brief notion of going for Jason's gun and shooting Georgie. The thought terrified her. What was she thinking? She burst into tears and ran out of Spinelli's apartment and down the stairs.
"You're not gonna go after her?" Jason asked Spinelli with surprise.
Spinelli shook his head and sighed with the same mixture of sympathy and exasperation Mike had felt for Lulu after the tabloid article.
"I can't help her this time."
He looked at Georgie, who was holding the ice pack over her still stinging cheek.
"Are you OK?"
"It stings, but I'm OK."
Jason turned to Dillon, who spoke before he could.
"Don't worry, Jason; I won't say anything to anyone about Jake. I get why nobody is supposed to know.
"Thank you."
He turned to Georgie and Spinelli.
"Congratulations."
"Thank you," they said together.
"Thank you for keeping Jake's secret, too," he said to Georgie.
She nodded.
Jason left, saying he had to take care of some things. Dillon followed him; Tracey was on his case about spending more time at home. He knew the real reason she was being so difficult was because she'd thrown Luke out and was stubbornly refusing to let him back in. They were playing stupid, childish games and Spinelli and Georgie understood completely why Dillon wanted to knock their heads together.
When Dillon closed the door, Spinelli and Georgie hugged, both sighing with relief. Lulu was gone. The scene had been much more dramatic than they'd feared. They were thankful that there was nothing more Lulu could ever do to hurt them. Neither had any idea how wrong they were. At the moment, neither did lulu.
