Can't Get You Out Of My Head
Chapter 2
When she stepped out of the elevator, Elizabeth quickly scanned the fifth floor Nurses' Station. He said it was important, that she needed to get to the hospital immediately. But when she does get there, he's no where in sight.
"Liz." She heard his voice behind her. Her heart pounded as she turned to face him.
"Lucky? Is everything okay? You're message just said to get here right away. Did something happen to Emily?" She shouldn't have turned her phone off before going to see Ric. She didn't even know why she did. If something happened to Emily and she was too busy with her own crap to see her, she'd never forgive herself.
"No, Em's okay. She's fine." He stroked her hair, trying to soothe her worry.
"Then what is it? You're message scared the hell out of me, Lucky."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you, it's just.here, let's sit." He tried to lead her to the chairs, but she resisted.
"No, Lucky, I don't want to sit. Just tell me what's going on." He said Emily was fine, but something bad was going on. She heard it in his voice.
"Em's awake, Liz. She wanted me to get you."
"Awake? That's good. That's a good thing, so what's wrong?"
"I talked to Monica." He paused, didn't know how to say it. Emily was a shining light in both of their lives. He wasn't ready to face the possibility that the light could go out. "She got some test results back for Emily, and they weren't good."
"They weren't good? Lucky, what does that mean? You're scaring me again."
"I'm sorry. Um, she said," God, he was stupid. He could barely remember what Monica had told him. "The medication. It's not working like it's supposed to. And.her immune system is shutting down. It's not helping at all anymore to fight off the infection." When he saw the tears spill from Elizabeth's eyes, his wanted to mimic the emotion. But he couldn't. He had to stay strong, for Emily, for Liz. "Monica said if they can't find something to counteract the infection soon, its going.it's going to start taking over her organs one by one."
Elizabeth swore she felt her heart stop. This wasn't happening. She realized things were getting bad, but in the back of her mind she knew.she knew that the doctors would remember some other medicine that was going to fix everything. They had to. But was her instinct wrong?
"Are you okay, Liz? Maybe you should sit down." She didn't fight him this time when he ushered her toward the seats, sat her down.
"We're not going to lose her, Lucky. We can't. The doctor Nik called, Monica, they're going to think of something. I know it." She assured him, tried to assure herself.
"You're right. Em's a fighter. She'll get through this." Lucky put his arm around her, placed a kiss of her forehead. "So how did it go with Ric this morning?"
"What?" It took her a second to come out of her own thoughts and back to reality. "Oh, terrible."
Lucky pulled back and faced her. "What does that mean? What happened?"
"He just basically told me that he knew I was still in love with him so he's not giving up. He ripped up the papers. He said he's going to fight me if I go to court."
"Then we'll fight back. I'll help in any way I can."
"Yeah." Her voice was far off, she was thinking about something.
Lucky raised an eyebrow at her. "What else?"
She laughed. "You know me too well." She paused. "He was.with Faith Roscoe. And it was quite obvious that they were.well, I'm not going to spell it out."
"You don't have to." Lucky wanted to ring that guy's neck for hurting Elizabeth. She was such a good person who just wanted to believe that she could help people. But men like Ric, Jason, even Lucky took advantage of her good heart.
Elizabeth tried a laugh. It came out more like a sigh. "He, uh, when he saw us here yesterday, hugging, he assumed we were back together. Or at least sleeping together."
"He did?"
"Yeah, and I.I let him keep believing that. I hope that's okay with you."
Lucky couldn't pinpoint what he thought of that. It was kind of funny. He and Elizabeth hadn't been together in a long time. The idea of getting back together had never crossed his mind.until now. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll make sure to go along with it if I see him."
"Thanks." She kissed his cheek. "You're the best."
"Well, isn't this cute? It's like a Kodak moment."
A wave of unexpected irritation flew over Elizabeth at the redhead's voice. She didn't know exactly why she hated Lydia. It probably had something to do with the fact that she was married to Nik.
"Yes, it was. And you interrupted it." Lucky stood, not just a little irritated himself. "I hope there's a reason."
"Yes, there is. I need to speak to you." She glanced at Elizabeth. "Alone."
"Liz can stay."
"No." Elizabeth stood. "I want to go see Em. I think I'm composed enough not to depress her now."
"Are you sure you want to go alone? I could go with you?"
"No no. You guys talk. I'll just see you later, lover." She winked at him before heading down the hall toward Emily's room.
Because her head was in her purse, she was shocked when she slammed into a hard body.
"I'm sorry," She looked up into a familiar face. "Zander, hey. How's Em doing?"
"She's doing okay. We just got some bad news though." His eyes were so sad. That's all Elizabeth could see.
"Lucky told me. He talked to Monica. But they're going to find something. I know it. I can feel it." And she did.
He smiled, but his eyes were still crying dryly. "Thanks." Now his face lit up. "But I have some good news. Em and I are getting married! Tomorrow we're having the ceremony."
She couldn't hide her shock. "Married? Really? Wow, Zander. That's great!" She gave him a hug, not sure what she thought of the idea.
"Thanks. You should go in and see her. She's awake. She kicked me out, making me go get food." He laughed. "Always thinking of everyone but herself."
"Yeah." She squeezed his arm. "Congratulations."
Elizabeth slowly made her way into Emily's room, stopped when she saw her. She looked weak, fragile. She didn't look like Emily at all.
Her eyes fluttered open. "Liz?" Even her voice was shaky.
"Yeah, honey. How are you?" She sat in the chair next to the bed.
"Eck. Not the greatest."
"I heard you're getting married."
Emily's face registered her devastation, but she put on a smile. "Yeah, Zander just asked me."
"What about Nik?"
Another look of sadness graced her features. "Zander's who I want to be with."
"Emily, who do you think you're talking to here?" Elizabeth smiled. "I know you, and I know you're in love with Nik. So why are you pushing him away?"
Emily considered lying, but there was no use. This was Liz. She always told Liz the truth. "Nik.okay, Stefan borrowed money from creditors that he can't pay back unless he gets the money from Lydia. The money that they get when Lydia and Nikolas are married and have a child."
"God, that's terrible for Stefan, but Em, that's his problem. Not Nik's."
"But that's just it. The creditors said if they don't get the money, they'll kill Nikolas."
"Oh my God. Em." Elizabeth didn't know what to say. Why was this happening to Emily? She had so much to deal with already, now she couldn't even have the man she loved by her side.
"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about you, and how much I love you. And I want you to know that you have been the best friend a girl could ever have." She raised a shaky hand when Liz tried to speak. "I just want you to know that you are such a good person, with a good heart, and you deserve the best of everything. And, whatever happens to me, well, I don't tell you enough how important you are to me, and how big of a difference you make in my life. I wouldn't have made it this far without you, Liz. I love you."
Elizabeth's face was streaked with tears. "I love you too." She leaned in to give Emily a kiss, tried to hug her as best she could. "And you're going to have lots more opportunities to tell me how great I am because you're going to get through this. Don't look so down, Em. I have a feeling. Everything is going to be okay."
"You believe that?"
"One hundred percent, Em. And you need to believe it too."
Emily just smiled. "So, tell me what's been going on with you."
"No. You don't want to go over my boring life. There are so many more things we can talk about."
Emily raised an eyebrow at her. "Like what?" She paused for an answer, continued when Liz didn't come up with one. "Lucky told me you went to take Ric divorce papers. Does it feel better to have it over with?"
"Well, it might, if he hadn't ripped them in half."
"What?"
Elizabeth told Emily everything that happened at Faith's cabin.
"Elizabeth, that must have been awful. So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know." And she didn't. There were too many things going on inside her to decide. First there was Ric, promising to fight. Then her own desire to keep him as close to her as possible. Everything he's done. The fact that he slept with Faith. But it always came back to love, the love they shared.
"Well then. How do you feel about Ric?"
"I love him." Elizabeth said without hesitation.
"And if he uses everything he has to get you back?"
She frowned, hating herself for the answer she knew was the truth. "I don't think I could say no."
~*~
He could slip something in her drink, wait until she passes out, and put her on a plane to Italy. They could have the honeymoon they were deprived of. No one they know around to discourage their time together. He could wine and dine her, show her how wonderful their life could be together.
All.while.keeping.her.captive.no, Ric told himself. Elizabeth would have a hard time enjoying herself. She'd probably try to leave. He couldn't do that.well, he could store it in the back of his mind as a "last case scenario."
This was his favorite part of scheming. Working out in his mind all of the crazy.necessary things that needed to be done to make things turn out the way they were supposed to.
And he and Elizabeth were meant to be together. That he was sure of. He just had to find a way to convince her of it.
There was always staging it so they were trapped somewhere together. Caught in a snowstorm in a cabin? No, it was August, and, after that mornings debacle with Faith, it was best to leave cabins out of the mix.
Door handle stuck in his hotel room, and the phones were dead? It would be tricky to get her there, and even if he could, she'd probably bring her cell phone and call the front desk. But getting her to a hotel room was worth a shot.
Maybe he could.
He heard a car door slam outside of Faith's cabin. It was about time. He'd considered just packing everything up and taking off, but that wouldn't have been smart. Faith would no doubt be perturbed, and with her track record, she'd go after Elizabeth first. He had to find a way to break things off with her, and convince her that Elizabeth was not the reason.
"Hey there, sexy." She came through the door with at least four huge shopping bags. "I have some fun new toys for us to.play with." She tossed them on the bed, started rummaging through them. "Now, even though I'm partial to black, I know you like bright colors. So this was for you." She pulled out a bright red, lace teddy. It made Ric cringe to think of her in it.
"That's nice, Faith, but."
"Oh, and you are going to love these." She reached for another bag, pulled out handcuffs and a black, leather whip. "What do you think?"
He stood. "Okay, Faith. Enough show and tell. We need to talk." He grabbed the "toys" from her and threw them on the bed. When she tried to kiss him, he shoved her away.
"Oh, you're kidding me." Her face went dark with fury. "That little twit shows up and all of a sudden I'm not good enough?"
"This has nothing to do with her."
"Didn't I warn you, Ric?" She tilted her head a bit to the side, bit her lower lip, before, sweetly, curving it into a smile. "I said if you broke my heart, I'd kill you. Didn't you believe me?"
"I heard you, Faith. And I believed you. But I'm no good for you right now."
"Because you're still in love with the little wifey?"
"That's part of it. But it's not what you think."
She ran her hands threw her hair, looked up at the ceiling. "Really?" She looked back at him, her dark eyes pinning him in place. "You're not leaving me to go chase after that two-bit waitress you call 'true love?'"
"No. I'm leaving."
"So this has nothing to do with the fact that she was here today?"
Ric hesitated, had to make this believable. "It has a lot to do with that."
Her eyebrow raised, a smug victory lighting her face. "I thought you said you were done with her?"
"I am. Or rather, she's done with me. She came here to give me divorce papers."
"And you were shocked?" she asked. "You didn't think that was the next step?"
"Divorce honestly never entered my mind." He sat back down, tried to look hurt, upset, in need of pity. "But I signed them. It was the least I could do for her."
Faith moved to him, grabbed his shoulders, shook him hard. "Wake up, Ric! It was the least you could do for yourself. You don't need that annoying little homemaker. You can have me!"
He tried not to laugh. Was she serious? Knowing Faith, she was very serious.
"It's not that simple. My heart is still not in the right place to jump into another relationship."
She bent in front of him, stroked his hair. "Honey, it's okay. So you're not ready to love me. I love enough for the both of us. In time you will." She reached for his pants buckle. "But until then."
He stood, pushed past her. "No, Faith. I can't. Not now."
She walked to him, her features went soft. "Okay. Okay, Ric. If you're not ready, I understand. Just remember to call me when you are."
Her looked back at her, studied her. It almost seemed too easy.
"Are you sure you're okay? I never meant to hurt you again."
She smiled. It looked sincere. "I know you didn't." She looked ready to cry. "But, hey. It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? And it could be fun again."
"Thanks, Faith." He grabbed his bag, headed for the door. "You really are a great person." He lied. He needed to find a way to deal with her before she could do anything to hurt Elizabeth.
"You'll see just how great I can be." Faith scowled at the closed door. "You think you're safe? You think you can hurt me time and again for that little wife of yours, and I won't come after you? Think again, Ric. Think again."
Chapter 2
When she stepped out of the elevator, Elizabeth quickly scanned the fifth floor Nurses' Station. He said it was important, that she needed to get to the hospital immediately. But when she does get there, he's no where in sight.
"Liz." She heard his voice behind her. Her heart pounded as she turned to face him.
"Lucky? Is everything okay? You're message just said to get here right away. Did something happen to Emily?" She shouldn't have turned her phone off before going to see Ric. She didn't even know why she did. If something happened to Emily and she was too busy with her own crap to see her, she'd never forgive herself.
"No, Em's okay. She's fine." He stroked her hair, trying to soothe her worry.
"Then what is it? You're message scared the hell out of me, Lucky."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you, it's just.here, let's sit." He tried to lead her to the chairs, but she resisted.
"No, Lucky, I don't want to sit. Just tell me what's going on." He said Emily was fine, but something bad was going on. She heard it in his voice.
"Em's awake, Liz. She wanted me to get you."
"Awake? That's good. That's a good thing, so what's wrong?"
"I talked to Monica." He paused, didn't know how to say it. Emily was a shining light in both of their lives. He wasn't ready to face the possibility that the light could go out. "She got some test results back for Emily, and they weren't good."
"They weren't good? Lucky, what does that mean? You're scaring me again."
"I'm sorry. Um, she said," God, he was stupid. He could barely remember what Monica had told him. "The medication. It's not working like it's supposed to. And.her immune system is shutting down. It's not helping at all anymore to fight off the infection." When he saw the tears spill from Elizabeth's eyes, his wanted to mimic the emotion. But he couldn't. He had to stay strong, for Emily, for Liz. "Monica said if they can't find something to counteract the infection soon, its going.it's going to start taking over her organs one by one."
Elizabeth swore she felt her heart stop. This wasn't happening. She realized things were getting bad, but in the back of her mind she knew.she knew that the doctors would remember some other medicine that was going to fix everything. They had to. But was her instinct wrong?
"Are you okay, Liz? Maybe you should sit down." She didn't fight him this time when he ushered her toward the seats, sat her down.
"We're not going to lose her, Lucky. We can't. The doctor Nik called, Monica, they're going to think of something. I know it." She assured him, tried to assure herself.
"You're right. Em's a fighter. She'll get through this." Lucky put his arm around her, placed a kiss of her forehead. "So how did it go with Ric this morning?"
"What?" It took her a second to come out of her own thoughts and back to reality. "Oh, terrible."
Lucky pulled back and faced her. "What does that mean? What happened?"
"He just basically told me that he knew I was still in love with him so he's not giving up. He ripped up the papers. He said he's going to fight me if I go to court."
"Then we'll fight back. I'll help in any way I can."
"Yeah." Her voice was far off, she was thinking about something.
Lucky raised an eyebrow at her. "What else?"
She laughed. "You know me too well." She paused. "He was.with Faith Roscoe. And it was quite obvious that they were.well, I'm not going to spell it out."
"You don't have to." Lucky wanted to ring that guy's neck for hurting Elizabeth. She was such a good person who just wanted to believe that she could help people. But men like Ric, Jason, even Lucky took advantage of her good heart.
Elizabeth tried a laugh. It came out more like a sigh. "He, uh, when he saw us here yesterday, hugging, he assumed we were back together. Or at least sleeping together."
"He did?"
"Yeah, and I.I let him keep believing that. I hope that's okay with you."
Lucky couldn't pinpoint what he thought of that. It was kind of funny. He and Elizabeth hadn't been together in a long time. The idea of getting back together had never crossed his mind.until now. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll make sure to go along with it if I see him."
"Thanks." She kissed his cheek. "You're the best."
"Well, isn't this cute? It's like a Kodak moment."
A wave of unexpected irritation flew over Elizabeth at the redhead's voice. She didn't know exactly why she hated Lydia. It probably had something to do with the fact that she was married to Nik.
"Yes, it was. And you interrupted it." Lucky stood, not just a little irritated himself. "I hope there's a reason."
"Yes, there is. I need to speak to you." She glanced at Elizabeth. "Alone."
"Liz can stay."
"No." Elizabeth stood. "I want to go see Em. I think I'm composed enough not to depress her now."
"Are you sure you want to go alone? I could go with you?"
"No no. You guys talk. I'll just see you later, lover." She winked at him before heading down the hall toward Emily's room.
Because her head was in her purse, she was shocked when she slammed into a hard body.
"I'm sorry," She looked up into a familiar face. "Zander, hey. How's Em doing?"
"She's doing okay. We just got some bad news though." His eyes were so sad. That's all Elizabeth could see.
"Lucky told me. He talked to Monica. But they're going to find something. I know it. I can feel it." And she did.
He smiled, but his eyes were still crying dryly. "Thanks." Now his face lit up. "But I have some good news. Em and I are getting married! Tomorrow we're having the ceremony."
She couldn't hide her shock. "Married? Really? Wow, Zander. That's great!" She gave him a hug, not sure what she thought of the idea.
"Thanks. You should go in and see her. She's awake. She kicked me out, making me go get food." He laughed. "Always thinking of everyone but herself."
"Yeah." She squeezed his arm. "Congratulations."
Elizabeth slowly made her way into Emily's room, stopped when she saw her. She looked weak, fragile. She didn't look like Emily at all.
Her eyes fluttered open. "Liz?" Even her voice was shaky.
"Yeah, honey. How are you?" She sat in the chair next to the bed.
"Eck. Not the greatest."
"I heard you're getting married."
Emily's face registered her devastation, but she put on a smile. "Yeah, Zander just asked me."
"What about Nik?"
Another look of sadness graced her features. "Zander's who I want to be with."
"Emily, who do you think you're talking to here?" Elizabeth smiled. "I know you, and I know you're in love with Nik. So why are you pushing him away?"
Emily considered lying, but there was no use. This was Liz. She always told Liz the truth. "Nik.okay, Stefan borrowed money from creditors that he can't pay back unless he gets the money from Lydia. The money that they get when Lydia and Nikolas are married and have a child."
"God, that's terrible for Stefan, but Em, that's his problem. Not Nik's."
"But that's just it. The creditors said if they don't get the money, they'll kill Nikolas."
"Oh my God. Em." Elizabeth didn't know what to say. Why was this happening to Emily? She had so much to deal with already, now she couldn't even have the man she loved by her side.
"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about you, and how much I love you. And I want you to know that you have been the best friend a girl could ever have." She raised a shaky hand when Liz tried to speak. "I just want you to know that you are such a good person, with a good heart, and you deserve the best of everything. And, whatever happens to me, well, I don't tell you enough how important you are to me, and how big of a difference you make in my life. I wouldn't have made it this far without you, Liz. I love you."
Elizabeth's face was streaked with tears. "I love you too." She leaned in to give Emily a kiss, tried to hug her as best she could. "And you're going to have lots more opportunities to tell me how great I am because you're going to get through this. Don't look so down, Em. I have a feeling. Everything is going to be okay."
"You believe that?"
"One hundred percent, Em. And you need to believe it too."
Emily just smiled. "So, tell me what's been going on with you."
"No. You don't want to go over my boring life. There are so many more things we can talk about."
Emily raised an eyebrow at her. "Like what?" She paused for an answer, continued when Liz didn't come up with one. "Lucky told me you went to take Ric divorce papers. Does it feel better to have it over with?"
"Well, it might, if he hadn't ripped them in half."
"What?"
Elizabeth told Emily everything that happened at Faith's cabin.
"Elizabeth, that must have been awful. So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know." And she didn't. There were too many things going on inside her to decide. First there was Ric, promising to fight. Then her own desire to keep him as close to her as possible. Everything he's done. The fact that he slept with Faith. But it always came back to love, the love they shared.
"Well then. How do you feel about Ric?"
"I love him." Elizabeth said without hesitation.
"And if he uses everything he has to get you back?"
She frowned, hating herself for the answer she knew was the truth. "I don't think I could say no."
~*~
He could slip something in her drink, wait until she passes out, and put her on a plane to Italy. They could have the honeymoon they were deprived of. No one they know around to discourage their time together. He could wine and dine her, show her how wonderful their life could be together.
All.while.keeping.her.captive.no, Ric told himself. Elizabeth would have a hard time enjoying herself. She'd probably try to leave. He couldn't do that.well, he could store it in the back of his mind as a "last case scenario."
This was his favorite part of scheming. Working out in his mind all of the crazy.necessary things that needed to be done to make things turn out the way they were supposed to.
And he and Elizabeth were meant to be together. That he was sure of. He just had to find a way to convince her of it.
There was always staging it so they were trapped somewhere together. Caught in a snowstorm in a cabin? No, it was August, and, after that mornings debacle with Faith, it was best to leave cabins out of the mix.
Door handle stuck in his hotel room, and the phones were dead? It would be tricky to get her there, and even if he could, she'd probably bring her cell phone and call the front desk. But getting her to a hotel room was worth a shot.
Maybe he could.
He heard a car door slam outside of Faith's cabin. It was about time. He'd considered just packing everything up and taking off, but that wouldn't have been smart. Faith would no doubt be perturbed, and with her track record, she'd go after Elizabeth first. He had to find a way to break things off with her, and convince her that Elizabeth was not the reason.
"Hey there, sexy." She came through the door with at least four huge shopping bags. "I have some fun new toys for us to.play with." She tossed them on the bed, started rummaging through them. "Now, even though I'm partial to black, I know you like bright colors. So this was for you." She pulled out a bright red, lace teddy. It made Ric cringe to think of her in it.
"That's nice, Faith, but."
"Oh, and you are going to love these." She reached for another bag, pulled out handcuffs and a black, leather whip. "What do you think?"
He stood. "Okay, Faith. Enough show and tell. We need to talk." He grabbed the "toys" from her and threw them on the bed. When she tried to kiss him, he shoved her away.
"Oh, you're kidding me." Her face went dark with fury. "That little twit shows up and all of a sudden I'm not good enough?"
"This has nothing to do with her."
"Didn't I warn you, Ric?" She tilted her head a bit to the side, bit her lower lip, before, sweetly, curving it into a smile. "I said if you broke my heart, I'd kill you. Didn't you believe me?"
"I heard you, Faith. And I believed you. But I'm no good for you right now."
"Because you're still in love with the little wifey?"
"That's part of it. But it's not what you think."
She ran her hands threw her hair, looked up at the ceiling. "Really?" She looked back at him, her dark eyes pinning him in place. "You're not leaving me to go chase after that two-bit waitress you call 'true love?'"
"No. I'm leaving."
"So this has nothing to do with the fact that she was here today?"
Ric hesitated, had to make this believable. "It has a lot to do with that."
Her eyebrow raised, a smug victory lighting her face. "I thought you said you were done with her?"
"I am. Or rather, she's done with me. She came here to give me divorce papers."
"And you were shocked?" she asked. "You didn't think that was the next step?"
"Divorce honestly never entered my mind." He sat back down, tried to look hurt, upset, in need of pity. "But I signed them. It was the least I could do for her."
Faith moved to him, grabbed his shoulders, shook him hard. "Wake up, Ric! It was the least you could do for yourself. You don't need that annoying little homemaker. You can have me!"
He tried not to laugh. Was she serious? Knowing Faith, she was very serious.
"It's not that simple. My heart is still not in the right place to jump into another relationship."
She bent in front of him, stroked his hair. "Honey, it's okay. So you're not ready to love me. I love enough for the both of us. In time you will." She reached for his pants buckle. "But until then."
He stood, pushed past her. "No, Faith. I can't. Not now."
She walked to him, her features went soft. "Okay. Okay, Ric. If you're not ready, I understand. Just remember to call me when you are."
Her looked back at her, studied her. It almost seemed too easy.
"Are you sure you're okay? I never meant to hurt you again."
She smiled. It looked sincere. "I know you didn't." She looked ready to cry. "But, hey. It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? And it could be fun again."
"Thanks, Faith." He grabbed his bag, headed for the door. "You really are a great person." He lied. He needed to find a way to deal with her before she could do anything to hurt Elizabeth.
"You'll see just how great I can be." Faith scowled at the closed door. "You think you're safe? You think you can hurt me time and again for that little wife of yours, and I won't come after you? Think again, Ric. Think again."