"Now wait a second, Nicholas. Just calm down--"
"That bitch!" Emily rolled her eyes and sighed as Nicholas opened the car door and stormed out, slamming it behind him. Of course, it had been a mild shock to see Elizabeth kissing Jason an hour and a half after she ditched her wedding to Lucky, but Nic was way overreacting.
Emily, on the other hand, was not upset. Actually she was the furthest thing from it. They had found Elizabeth, which meant Emily could go home very soon and change. On top of that, they had found Elizabeth AND Jason, her long time missing in action brother whom she missed desperately. And the icing on the cake: Elizabeth and Jason had finally kissed, something Emily knew they had both wanted so badly she thought they would explode.
She smiled smugly as she followed the suit of unhappy people who were quickly approaching where Elizabeth and Jason stood. To her credit, Elizabeth tried making an escape by hopping on the back of Jason's bike and pulling his hand for him to follow, but he wouldn't budge and by the time she realized he wasn't moving Nicholas had all ready approached them.
Emily ran to catch up; no matter how much she was annoyed with him Nicholas didn't deserve to get as badly beaten up as he would get if he started things with Jason. "Nicholas!" She yelled, as did Bobbie and Audrey, who, despite their age, had quite a lead on her. She caught up fairly quickly even after almost slipping on the wet grass a few times. When she reached the group, she had to stop and rest her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
"What the hell did you think you were doing, Elizabeth? Huh? Did you think it was funny, leaving my brother at the altar like that? Some big joke? Well no one was laughing. And then here you are, with Jason, kissing him less than hours after you planned on pledging your undying love to Lucky. How long have you been sleeping with him now? How many times have you told my brother you loved him, all the while having a slice of Jason on the side?"
"Nicholas! That is enough!" Audrey put her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah," Breath, "Nicholas," Breath, "That is," Breath, "Enough." Emily panted, looking up at them.
"You okay, Em?" She heard Elizabeth's concerned voice and lifted her head in acknowledgement.
"Yeah," Breath, "Just peachy." Emily lifted one hand to give her the thumbs up sign, but Elizabeth didn't have much time to react before Nicholas had begun yelling again. "Just peachy." She murmured.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Elizabeth's concentration was quickly switched from Emily to Nicholas at the sound of his voice. She hadn't answered his questions, didn't know what to say, and he didn't give her much time to think. One second she was kissing Jason and feeling happier than she ever remembered feeling, the next Bobbie, Audrey, Emily and Nicholas had found her and she was being interrogated. Why couldn't she get a break just this once? Why couldn't she just take off with Jason and never look back?
Elizabeth should have known life was never that simple.
"No, I will not calm down! I think I deserve an explanation." He stared at Elizabeth and her thoughts couldn't help but drift back to the scenario she predicted while on the bench: Nicholas's face starting to turn a cartoonish shade of red with anger. She tried with all her might not to laugh, tried to hold it back, knowing quite well how inappropriate that would be and how much Nicholas would not like it.
She laughed anyway. Not just a chuckle, but full-blown laughter.
"Elizabeth!" Bobbie said. Emily, Audrey and Bobbie all looked at her with shock. Nicholas had a look of disgust and Jason was trying very hard to suppress a smile.
"I'm sorry." It was all she could manage without laughing again. She looked down, trying to avoid seeing Nicholas, which might cause another burst of laughter from Elizabeth. If that happened, she could kiss any hope of a friendship with him goodbye.
"You're sorry? Sorry for what Elizabeth, huh? For pretending to love my brother, for lying, for hurting him and for embarrassing him in front of all of his family and friends? You should be." Maybe she should just start kissing her friendship with Nicholas goodbye right now. She didn't know what he was so angry about. It wasn't like she left him at the altar; she left his brother. Why couldn't he just react like a normal person and accept it?
"What do you want from me, Nicholas? What's done is done. I regret the way I did it, but I don't regret the reasons for it."
"What are the reasons, Elizabeth?" Her grandmother spoke up, asking a question that was really not easy to answer. "I've been quite curious, and I just don't understand. You were so excited when Lucky proposed …"
Elizabeth thought a moment, her eyes wandering over to Jason, who looked extremely interested in Elizabeth's response even though she could tell he was trying to hide it. "Gram, when Lucky did propose to me, I wasn't excited. I wasn't happy, I didn't feel like I thought I should feel and that scared me. I didn't know what and wasn't ready to deal with what it meant. And when I was ready, we found out Lucky was still under Helena's control and I couldn't just leave him." She really wasn't in the mood to explain herself to anyone but it didn't really seem like she had a choice. It wasn't like she could ever get them to understand exactly why she did what she did, why she acted how she acted when she was just beginning to figure some of it out for herself.
"You stayed with him out of loyalty. Not love." Emily said.
"Yes." Elizabeth stuck with yes because yes and no would just cause more confusion than there all ready was. "Loyalty and confusion." They all seemed to look like they were beginning to understand the little information she had given them. But she didn't know about Nicholas, who she still couldn't look at for fear of laughter.
"So you were just pretending to love Lucky."
"Yes." She had to remind herself to stick with simple answers, one word preferably. It was like she was on the witness stand, being accused of some horrible crime and Nicholas was the prosecution attorney. The red-faced prosecution attorney.
She almost laughed again. Almost.
"You were pretending to love Lucky because you didn't have the decency or the guts to tell him you didn't, is that how it goes, Elizabeth?" Oh boy did Elizabeth feel like punching Nicholas. But it seemed that Jason would beat her to the chase, and she watched as he moved from his place at her side to between her and Nicholas.
"Elizabeth doesn't have to explain herself to you or anyone." She was glad she wasn't on the other end of Jason's icy glare.
"I think you're wrong." Nicholas didn't seem the least bit intimidated on the outside, but Elizabeth was sure he was quivering with fear on the inside.
"I think you should leave."
"Or what? You're going to beat me up, just like you beat the shit out of Lucky all those months ago?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You know what?" Gia broke the silence that had hung between her and Zander for the past ten minutes. The last five of which they both had just been sitting; the piece of chalk Zander found had turned into dust. That had probably been the most boring five minutes of Gia's life.
"What?" He didn't even glance at her when she spoke, which she thought was extremely rude but held her tongue and did the same, turning her head away from him to stare across the street. She thought Zander was pretty rude in general. She didn't think about him a lot, didn't have to since he and Emily and she and Nicholas hadn't really spent much time together, despite the fact that Emily and Nicholas still maintained that they were friends. Yeah, friends who saw each other no more than once a month on average.
"I'm sick of sitting. We should go find them." It was probably a stupid idea. She and Zander could go out and look, get lost, and by the time they find themselves Nicholas and Emily and everyone else would probably all ready be back. But then, of course, they could find the search party and she get drag Nicholas home and the wedding from hell could finally be over. This was, without a doubt, the worst wedding Gia had ever had the misfortune of attending and she could not wait for it to be officially over for her.
"Start a search party for the search party."
"Yep." Zander rose, brushing the dirt and chalk dust of his hands on his pants, looked down at Gia.
"Sounds good to me." Gia smiled as she got up and her and Zander headed for the jag.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What I do know," Laura said after a long pause, "is that we're not helping anyone by sitting here." And that was true. They were just sitting. Sitting and talking, which didn't help anybody but themselves.
"You're right about that."
Luke got up from his seat and stuck his hand out to Laura, who smiled and placed her hand in his. He half pulled her up and the walked down the steps of the gazebo, their hands still connected. Laura marveled at how good it felt just be near him and how comforting and familiar that even after all these years, she and Luke had survived. After almost loosing him she tried to remind herself how lucky she was that after everything they had been through they managed to find their way back to each other.
"Did Lucky say where he was going?" Luke shook his head.
"No. He just walked off."
Now all they had to do was find their way to their son. And Elizabeth.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Would you slow down?" Gia shot Zander a brief glance before returning her attention back to the road. She had to focus. The more focused she was, the better chance she would have of finding Nicholas. And as soon as she found Nicholas she was dragging his ass home.
"Are you driving? No. Can you tell me what to do? No."
"No, Gia I'm serious! I think I saw someone."
"I bet you saw someone. People kind of have a tendency to be seen, since they pretty much take up most of the world."
"Drop the sarcasm and back up. I think I saw Elizabeth, but it was hard to tell because there was a whole bunch of other people with her. It could have been them." She slammed her foot on the brakes and looked behind her as she started to back up.
"Why the hell didn't you just say that in the first place?"
"I tried-you know, I'm not even going to bother." She saw Zander fold his arms over his chest out of the corner of her eye, but then something more interesting caught her attention: four or five people gathered around a girl in a wedding dress and a man in a leather jacket. She stopped and smiled; sure that one of the back of the people's head was Nicholas. She'd know that head anywhere.
"Good because you were right. Look. It's them."
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now Elizabeth really wanted to punch Nicholas. He had some nerve drudging up the past, never mind the fact that he knew nothing about what really happened. This was not the time or the place.
"For your information, Nicholas?" She said, stepping forward again so she was next to Jason, "Lucky pulled a knife on Jason and Jason was protecting himself. That was it. Not that it's any of your business."
"That's not what you said when it happened." She took a moment and prepared to explain herself once again to people who did not deserve it.
"I didn't know Lucky was still brainwashed back then. When Jason told me what happened, I didn't believe him. But you saw Lucky. You and I both knew what he was capable of under Helena's control." Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest and gave Nicholas an intimidating look, a look that begged him to ask more questions if he dared.
"Are you finished, Nicholas?" Emily said.
"No." Nicholas's eyes never left Elizabeth as he tried to be intimidating right back at her. Elizabeth's eyes never left Nicholas as she reached out to grab Jason's hand and lock his fingers with hers. It seemed to unsettle him, at least for a moment; the reminder that Jason Morgan, resident mobster was standing right beside her, ready for a fight if need be.
"Yes, actually, he is." A new voice caught everyone unaware and Elizabeth glanced slightly to the left to see Gia and Zander walking towards them. She shared a look with Jason and said a silent prayer for God to give her strength.
"No, actually, I'm not." Gia grabbed Nicholas's arm and looked at him pleadingly.
"Nicholas come on. Stop making this more difficult for everyone than it all ready is." Elizabeth was almost shocked at Gia's display of compassion. But then again, she got the feeling that Gia wanted nothing more than to get Nicholas to go home.
"Difficult for who? Elizabeth?" Elizabeth briefly caught sight of Emily and watched her roll her eyes.
"Difficult for me." She said. "Look, it's getting dark, I'm freezing and everyone's had a long day. Give it up."
"Emily does have a point."
"Yes she does." Elizabeth turned slightly to the left, seeing Luke and Laura hand in hand walking towards her and she wondered how many more unexpected visitors were going to show up and join the party. Take part in the let's attack Elizabeth and see just how much she can take before loosing it. Or sicking Jason on them. "But has anyone seen our son? He seemed to have …run off." Oh great. Elizabeth thought unhappily. Now that Lucky had run off Nicholas would have something else to blame on her.
"This is all your fault!" Nicholas cried, as if on cue. Elizabeth felt a headache coming on.
"Do you have any idea where he might be?" Luke and Laura started asking questions to everyone there. Gia was still tugging on Nicholas's arm and whining about how her feet hurt and she felt like she was going to puke because she hadn't eaten all day. Emily and Zander were kissing and whispering things to each other, Luke and Laura and Audrey and Bobbie were talking very loud very close to her. And the noise began to blend together, one loud, buzzing, annoying sound in her head that made her headache increase times ten.
She realized she hadn't eaten anything all day, too and began to feel dizzy. Her mind was vulnerable for one second, and in that one second, a million thoughts poured into her head at once. She thought about how Lucky could be hurt somewhere and she had caused that, she thought about how Nicholas would probably never speak to her again and how her family would probably disown her once they knew she was in love with a mobster and planned on marrying him some day. Did she really plan on marrying him? They had only kissed for the first time fifteen minutes ago. Maybe even less than that. This was not like her to be thinking of marriage so soon. But it was Jason so that made a difference, didn't it? It felt like they had been together forever. Not in a bad way, of course. Not like she was sick of him. She could never get sick of Jason. Could she? She never thought she'd get sick f Lucky and look how that turned out.
Elizabeth found her breathing getting labored and another wave of dizziness sweep over her. Oh no, she thought, this is not good.
"Elizabeth," Jason whispered, "Are you okay?"
"Yep." She managed in between trying to get oxygen to fill her lungs. "Just fine."
"Is she all right?"
"Oh great. She's having an anxiety attack." Everyone moved in on Elizabeth to see if she was okay, and that just caused her to breathe even harder. "Let's all crowd around Elizabeth! She's the victim, here, not my brother!"
"Oh Nicholas will you shut up!"
"Does anyone have a paper bag?"
"Actually, uhh I do." Everyone gave Bobbie a strange look but she ignored them and dug around in her purse until she came out with a brown paper bag. She handed it to Jason who handed it to Elizabeth who took it and began breathing in to it, the bag puffing in and shriveling up with each breath. "I always try to be prepared." Bobbie offered with a smile. "I am a nurse, after all."
"I didn't know nurses carried brown paper bags." Gia muttered.
Elizabeth moved back to the bench ad Jason sat down with her, one hand on her shoulder and the other holding her free one as he looked intently at her.
"She's faking! She can't take being yelled at so she's faking a panic attack." Everyone turned away from Elizabeth just long enough to give Nicholas a look of mild disdain. "Oh come on. Has this ever happened before?"
"Just calm down, Elizabeth, okay? Everything's all right. Nicholas is leaving. And so is everyone else." Jason took his eyes off Elizabeth only so he could give everyone the icy stare he was so good at. He looked back at her, brushed a piece of hair away from her face and stared intently at her. His eyes weren't cold or hard like they were when he looked at them. When Jason looked at her, Elizabeth noticed how warm they were, how full of whatever emotion he was feeling. Right now it was concern.
Elizabeth felt her breathing slow when she glanced over his shoulder and saw everyone leaving, Gia dragging Nicholas by the arm, his form getting smaller and smaller until they got into the jag and disappeared. Her thoughts quieted and she began to feel less dizzy, her headache went from a piercing pain to a dull throb. She took the bag away from her mouth and began to speak.
"Thank you." She said simply. She somehow felt disappointed in herself, though, like she couldn't handle the situation by herself. Which, of course, she couldn't. And she proved it once again by needing Jason to save her. Like always.
"Are you all right now?"
"Yes. Just a little embarrassed." A little embarrassed did not do justice.
"Why?" Elizabeth stopped for a moment and thought about why a smart man like Jason would ask her a question like that. It was obvious to even an innocent bystander she had made an absolute fool of herself.
"Where would you like me to start? Leaving Lucky at the alter was bad enough, but I had to out do myself and have a nervous breakdown in front of my friends and family."
"You didn't want to marry Lucky. Simple as that. That may not have been the time to realize it, but it was better that not realizing it--or not doing anything about it at all. And you stood up to Nicholas; you defended yourself to them even when you didn't have to. I think that shows courage."
"You think I'm courageous? Really?"
"Oh yeah." He nodded. "And beautiful, and intelligent." She couldn't help the smile that came to her face as Jason showered her with compliments. It felt good after taking the verbal abuse Nicholas had to dish out.
"Well I could listen to go you go on like this all night, but don't we have a flight to catch?" Elizabeth started to cheer up when she thought about being with Jason in Italy. Getting to be completely alone with him, with no anyone to say anything about what was wrong or what was right or who she was hurting. It would just be them.
"I told you you were intelligent."
"And you're usually right, Jason." She said it with more sincerity than she ever remembered saying something because it was the absolute truth. He had been right. He had been right the entire time, about how they felt about each other, about how she should trust what she feels, about Lucky. When it came right down to the things that mattered Jason seemed to know just what to do.
She looked up at him as he got up from the bench and reached his hand down to pull her up. She didn't take it for a moment, just stared how handsome he looked in the pale light of the newly risen moon, knowing it was one of those moments she'd want to remember forever.
Elizabeth placed her hand in his, knowing that even though she had never been to Italy, Jason had all ready shown her the light.
"That bitch!" Emily rolled her eyes and sighed as Nicholas opened the car door and stormed out, slamming it behind him. Of course, it had been a mild shock to see Elizabeth kissing Jason an hour and a half after she ditched her wedding to Lucky, but Nic was way overreacting.
Emily, on the other hand, was not upset. Actually she was the furthest thing from it. They had found Elizabeth, which meant Emily could go home very soon and change. On top of that, they had found Elizabeth AND Jason, her long time missing in action brother whom she missed desperately. And the icing on the cake: Elizabeth and Jason had finally kissed, something Emily knew they had both wanted so badly she thought they would explode.
She smiled smugly as she followed the suit of unhappy people who were quickly approaching where Elizabeth and Jason stood. To her credit, Elizabeth tried making an escape by hopping on the back of Jason's bike and pulling his hand for him to follow, but he wouldn't budge and by the time she realized he wasn't moving Nicholas had all ready approached them.
Emily ran to catch up; no matter how much she was annoyed with him Nicholas didn't deserve to get as badly beaten up as he would get if he started things with Jason. "Nicholas!" She yelled, as did Bobbie and Audrey, who, despite their age, had quite a lead on her. She caught up fairly quickly even after almost slipping on the wet grass a few times. When she reached the group, she had to stop and rest her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
"What the hell did you think you were doing, Elizabeth? Huh? Did you think it was funny, leaving my brother at the altar like that? Some big joke? Well no one was laughing. And then here you are, with Jason, kissing him less than hours after you planned on pledging your undying love to Lucky. How long have you been sleeping with him now? How many times have you told my brother you loved him, all the while having a slice of Jason on the side?"
"Nicholas! That is enough!" Audrey put her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah," Breath, "Nicholas," Breath, "That is," Breath, "Enough." Emily panted, looking up at them.
"You okay, Em?" She heard Elizabeth's concerned voice and lifted her head in acknowledgement.
"Yeah," Breath, "Just peachy." Emily lifted one hand to give her the thumbs up sign, but Elizabeth didn't have much time to react before Nicholas had begun yelling again. "Just peachy." She murmured.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Elizabeth's concentration was quickly switched from Emily to Nicholas at the sound of his voice. She hadn't answered his questions, didn't know what to say, and he didn't give her much time to think. One second she was kissing Jason and feeling happier than she ever remembered feeling, the next Bobbie, Audrey, Emily and Nicholas had found her and she was being interrogated. Why couldn't she get a break just this once? Why couldn't she just take off with Jason and never look back?
Elizabeth should have known life was never that simple.
"No, I will not calm down! I think I deserve an explanation." He stared at Elizabeth and her thoughts couldn't help but drift back to the scenario she predicted while on the bench: Nicholas's face starting to turn a cartoonish shade of red with anger. She tried with all her might not to laugh, tried to hold it back, knowing quite well how inappropriate that would be and how much Nicholas would not like it.
She laughed anyway. Not just a chuckle, but full-blown laughter.
"Elizabeth!" Bobbie said. Emily, Audrey and Bobbie all looked at her with shock. Nicholas had a look of disgust and Jason was trying very hard to suppress a smile.
"I'm sorry." It was all she could manage without laughing again. She looked down, trying to avoid seeing Nicholas, which might cause another burst of laughter from Elizabeth. If that happened, she could kiss any hope of a friendship with him goodbye.
"You're sorry? Sorry for what Elizabeth, huh? For pretending to love my brother, for lying, for hurting him and for embarrassing him in front of all of his family and friends? You should be." Maybe she should just start kissing her friendship with Nicholas goodbye right now. She didn't know what he was so angry about. It wasn't like she left him at the altar; she left his brother. Why couldn't he just react like a normal person and accept it?
"What do you want from me, Nicholas? What's done is done. I regret the way I did it, but I don't regret the reasons for it."
"What are the reasons, Elizabeth?" Her grandmother spoke up, asking a question that was really not easy to answer. "I've been quite curious, and I just don't understand. You were so excited when Lucky proposed …"
Elizabeth thought a moment, her eyes wandering over to Jason, who looked extremely interested in Elizabeth's response even though she could tell he was trying to hide it. "Gram, when Lucky did propose to me, I wasn't excited. I wasn't happy, I didn't feel like I thought I should feel and that scared me. I didn't know what and wasn't ready to deal with what it meant. And when I was ready, we found out Lucky was still under Helena's control and I couldn't just leave him." She really wasn't in the mood to explain herself to anyone but it didn't really seem like she had a choice. It wasn't like she could ever get them to understand exactly why she did what she did, why she acted how she acted when she was just beginning to figure some of it out for herself.
"You stayed with him out of loyalty. Not love." Emily said.
"Yes." Elizabeth stuck with yes because yes and no would just cause more confusion than there all ready was. "Loyalty and confusion." They all seemed to look like they were beginning to understand the little information she had given them. But she didn't know about Nicholas, who she still couldn't look at for fear of laughter.
"So you were just pretending to love Lucky."
"Yes." She had to remind herself to stick with simple answers, one word preferably. It was like she was on the witness stand, being accused of some horrible crime and Nicholas was the prosecution attorney. The red-faced prosecution attorney.
She almost laughed again. Almost.
"You were pretending to love Lucky because you didn't have the decency or the guts to tell him you didn't, is that how it goes, Elizabeth?" Oh boy did Elizabeth feel like punching Nicholas. But it seemed that Jason would beat her to the chase, and she watched as he moved from his place at her side to between her and Nicholas.
"Elizabeth doesn't have to explain herself to you or anyone." She was glad she wasn't on the other end of Jason's icy glare.
"I think you're wrong." Nicholas didn't seem the least bit intimidated on the outside, but Elizabeth was sure he was quivering with fear on the inside.
"I think you should leave."
"Or what? You're going to beat me up, just like you beat the shit out of Lucky all those months ago?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You know what?" Gia broke the silence that had hung between her and Zander for the past ten minutes. The last five of which they both had just been sitting; the piece of chalk Zander found had turned into dust. That had probably been the most boring five minutes of Gia's life.
"What?" He didn't even glance at her when she spoke, which she thought was extremely rude but held her tongue and did the same, turning her head away from him to stare across the street. She thought Zander was pretty rude in general. She didn't think about him a lot, didn't have to since he and Emily and she and Nicholas hadn't really spent much time together, despite the fact that Emily and Nicholas still maintained that they were friends. Yeah, friends who saw each other no more than once a month on average.
"I'm sick of sitting. We should go find them." It was probably a stupid idea. She and Zander could go out and look, get lost, and by the time they find themselves Nicholas and Emily and everyone else would probably all ready be back. But then, of course, they could find the search party and she get drag Nicholas home and the wedding from hell could finally be over. This was, without a doubt, the worst wedding Gia had ever had the misfortune of attending and she could not wait for it to be officially over for her.
"Start a search party for the search party."
"Yep." Zander rose, brushing the dirt and chalk dust of his hands on his pants, looked down at Gia.
"Sounds good to me." Gia smiled as she got up and her and Zander headed for the jag.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What I do know," Laura said after a long pause, "is that we're not helping anyone by sitting here." And that was true. They were just sitting. Sitting and talking, which didn't help anybody but themselves.
"You're right about that."
Luke got up from his seat and stuck his hand out to Laura, who smiled and placed her hand in his. He half pulled her up and the walked down the steps of the gazebo, their hands still connected. Laura marveled at how good it felt just be near him and how comforting and familiar that even after all these years, she and Luke had survived. After almost loosing him she tried to remind herself how lucky she was that after everything they had been through they managed to find their way back to each other.
"Did Lucky say where he was going?" Luke shook his head.
"No. He just walked off."
Now all they had to do was find their way to their son. And Elizabeth.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Would you slow down?" Gia shot Zander a brief glance before returning her attention back to the road. She had to focus. The more focused she was, the better chance she would have of finding Nicholas. And as soon as she found Nicholas she was dragging his ass home.
"Are you driving? No. Can you tell me what to do? No."
"No, Gia I'm serious! I think I saw someone."
"I bet you saw someone. People kind of have a tendency to be seen, since they pretty much take up most of the world."
"Drop the sarcasm and back up. I think I saw Elizabeth, but it was hard to tell because there was a whole bunch of other people with her. It could have been them." She slammed her foot on the brakes and looked behind her as she started to back up.
"Why the hell didn't you just say that in the first place?"
"I tried-you know, I'm not even going to bother." She saw Zander fold his arms over his chest out of the corner of her eye, but then something more interesting caught her attention: four or five people gathered around a girl in a wedding dress and a man in a leather jacket. She stopped and smiled; sure that one of the back of the people's head was Nicholas. She'd know that head anywhere.
"Good because you were right. Look. It's them."
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now Elizabeth really wanted to punch Nicholas. He had some nerve drudging up the past, never mind the fact that he knew nothing about what really happened. This was not the time or the place.
"For your information, Nicholas?" She said, stepping forward again so she was next to Jason, "Lucky pulled a knife on Jason and Jason was protecting himself. That was it. Not that it's any of your business."
"That's not what you said when it happened." She took a moment and prepared to explain herself once again to people who did not deserve it.
"I didn't know Lucky was still brainwashed back then. When Jason told me what happened, I didn't believe him. But you saw Lucky. You and I both knew what he was capable of under Helena's control." Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest and gave Nicholas an intimidating look, a look that begged him to ask more questions if he dared.
"Are you finished, Nicholas?" Emily said.
"No." Nicholas's eyes never left Elizabeth as he tried to be intimidating right back at her. Elizabeth's eyes never left Nicholas as she reached out to grab Jason's hand and lock his fingers with hers. It seemed to unsettle him, at least for a moment; the reminder that Jason Morgan, resident mobster was standing right beside her, ready for a fight if need be.
"Yes, actually, he is." A new voice caught everyone unaware and Elizabeth glanced slightly to the left to see Gia and Zander walking towards them. She shared a look with Jason and said a silent prayer for God to give her strength.
"No, actually, I'm not." Gia grabbed Nicholas's arm and looked at him pleadingly.
"Nicholas come on. Stop making this more difficult for everyone than it all ready is." Elizabeth was almost shocked at Gia's display of compassion. But then again, she got the feeling that Gia wanted nothing more than to get Nicholas to go home.
"Difficult for who? Elizabeth?" Elizabeth briefly caught sight of Emily and watched her roll her eyes.
"Difficult for me." She said. "Look, it's getting dark, I'm freezing and everyone's had a long day. Give it up."
"Emily does have a point."
"Yes she does." Elizabeth turned slightly to the left, seeing Luke and Laura hand in hand walking towards her and she wondered how many more unexpected visitors were going to show up and join the party. Take part in the let's attack Elizabeth and see just how much she can take before loosing it. Or sicking Jason on them. "But has anyone seen our son? He seemed to have …run off." Oh great. Elizabeth thought unhappily. Now that Lucky had run off Nicholas would have something else to blame on her.
"This is all your fault!" Nicholas cried, as if on cue. Elizabeth felt a headache coming on.
"Do you have any idea where he might be?" Luke and Laura started asking questions to everyone there. Gia was still tugging on Nicholas's arm and whining about how her feet hurt and she felt like she was going to puke because she hadn't eaten all day. Emily and Zander were kissing and whispering things to each other, Luke and Laura and Audrey and Bobbie were talking very loud very close to her. And the noise began to blend together, one loud, buzzing, annoying sound in her head that made her headache increase times ten.
She realized she hadn't eaten anything all day, too and began to feel dizzy. Her mind was vulnerable for one second, and in that one second, a million thoughts poured into her head at once. She thought about how Lucky could be hurt somewhere and she had caused that, she thought about how Nicholas would probably never speak to her again and how her family would probably disown her once they knew she was in love with a mobster and planned on marrying him some day. Did she really plan on marrying him? They had only kissed for the first time fifteen minutes ago. Maybe even less than that. This was not like her to be thinking of marriage so soon. But it was Jason so that made a difference, didn't it? It felt like they had been together forever. Not in a bad way, of course. Not like she was sick of him. She could never get sick of Jason. Could she? She never thought she'd get sick f Lucky and look how that turned out.
Elizabeth found her breathing getting labored and another wave of dizziness sweep over her. Oh no, she thought, this is not good.
"Elizabeth," Jason whispered, "Are you okay?"
"Yep." She managed in between trying to get oxygen to fill her lungs. "Just fine."
"Is she all right?"
"Oh great. She's having an anxiety attack." Everyone moved in on Elizabeth to see if she was okay, and that just caused her to breathe even harder. "Let's all crowd around Elizabeth! She's the victim, here, not my brother!"
"Oh Nicholas will you shut up!"
"Does anyone have a paper bag?"
"Actually, uhh I do." Everyone gave Bobbie a strange look but she ignored them and dug around in her purse until she came out with a brown paper bag. She handed it to Jason who handed it to Elizabeth who took it and began breathing in to it, the bag puffing in and shriveling up with each breath. "I always try to be prepared." Bobbie offered with a smile. "I am a nurse, after all."
"I didn't know nurses carried brown paper bags." Gia muttered.
Elizabeth moved back to the bench ad Jason sat down with her, one hand on her shoulder and the other holding her free one as he looked intently at her.
"She's faking! She can't take being yelled at so she's faking a panic attack." Everyone turned away from Elizabeth just long enough to give Nicholas a look of mild disdain. "Oh come on. Has this ever happened before?"
"Just calm down, Elizabeth, okay? Everything's all right. Nicholas is leaving. And so is everyone else." Jason took his eyes off Elizabeth only so he could give everyone the icy stare he was so good at. He looked back at her, brushed a piece of hair away from her face and stared intently at her. His eyes weren't cold or hard like they were when he looked at them. When Jason looked at her, Elizabeth noticed how warm they were, how full of whatever emotion he was feeling. Right now it was concern.
Elizabeth felt her breathing slow when she glanced over his shoulder and saw everyone leaving, Gia dragging Nicholas by the arm, his form getting smaller and smaller until they got into the jag and disappeared. Her thoughts quieted and she began to feel less dizzy, her headache went from a piercing pain to a dull throb. She took the bag away from her mouth and began to speak.
"Thank you." She said simply. She somehow felt disappointed in herself, though, like she couldn't handle the situation by herself. Which, of course, she couldn't. And she proved it once again by needing Jason to save her. Like always.
"Are you all right now?"
"Yes. Just a little embarrassed." A little embarrassed did not do justice.
"Why?" Elizabeth stopped for a moment and thought about why a smart man like Jason would ask her a question like that. It was obvious to even an innocent bystander she had made an absolute fool of herself.
"Where would you like me to start? Leaving Lucky at the alter was bad enough, but I had to out do myself and have a nervous breakdown in front of my friends and family."
"You didn't want to marry Lucky. Simple as that. That may not have been the time to realize it, but it was better that not realizing it--or not doing anything about it at all. And you stood up to Nicholas; you defended yourself to them even when you didn't have to. I think that shows courage."
"You think I'm courageous? Really?"
"Oh yeah." He nodded. "And beautiful, and intelligent." She couldn't help the smile that came to her face as Jason showered her with compliments. It felt good after taking the verbal abuse Nicholas had to dish out.
"Well I could listen to go you go on like this all night, but don't we have a flight to catch?" Elizabeth started to cheer up when she thought about being with Jason in Italy. Getting to be completely alone with him, with no anyone to say anything about what was wrong or what was right or who she was hurting. It would just be them.
"I told you you were intelligent."
"And you're usually right, Jason." She said it with more sincerity than she ever remembered saying something because it was the absolute truth. He had been right. He had been right the entire time, about how they felt about each other, about how she should trust what she feels, about Lucky. When it came right down to the things that mattered Jason seemed to know just what to do.
She looked up at him as he got up from the bench and reached his hand down to pull her up. She didn't take it for a moment, just stared how handsome he looked in the pale light of the newly risen moon, knowing it was one of those moments she'd want to remember forever.
Elizabeth placed her hand in his, knowing that even though she had never been to Italy, Jason had all ready shown her the light.