Chapter Twenty-Two

Kate walked into her living room to find Lucas moping around on the couch. Sighing, she sat down next to him and gave him a reproachful look.

"Lucas, you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself. And I have the perfect thing that will help you do that."

Lucas looked up at his mother suspiciously, "What?"

"Knock, knock." Kate began cheerfully.

Lucas rolled his eyes, "Who's there?"

"Sami."

Lucas was not sure if he wanted to hear the rest of this joke. Since it was his mother he was dealing with, he had a feeling this joke would do little to cheer him up, "Sami who?"

"Ha! See, you've forgotten about her already!" Kate seemed to find her joke hysterical and began laughing. Lucas just glared at her. She stopped laughing and sighed again, "It really isn't a bad thing that's she's getting married to Brady. Now you can move on and find a nice girl."

"I was in love with Sami, mom. Just leave it alone, okay?" Lucas turned away from Kate, scowling at the sofa cushion. He thought about another time when he was a kid when he had gotten really angry at his mom. He had been so angry, he started punching the couch, then accidentally punched the wooden part and broke his knuckles. From that day on, he had done his best to refrain from punching couches.

"Was? As in past tense? That's a very good thing." Kate chirped, ignoring the warning tone in Lucas' voice.

"Fine, I am in love with Sami. Can you leave me alone now?"

Kate sniffed, "I was only trying to help."

"Well, you weren't doing a very good job." Will broke in. He entered the living room, carrying a stuffed bear in his hands, "Grandma, can I talk to dad alone for a minute?"

Kate sniffed again but left the room anyway. Will sat down next to Lucas and played with the ribbon around the teddy bear's neck, "Dad, you can't let Uncle Brady marry mom. You love her and she loves you. You can still stop the wedding, it doesn't start for another hour and a half."

"Will, I can't do that. If this is what your mom wants-"

"But it's not!" Will cried, "She's been so sad and she tries to call you about a million times a day but you won't talk to her."

Lucas winced, "Will, I'm not ready to talk about this."

"Will you talk about it with Floom-Floom then?" Will held up the teddy bear.

"Floom-Floom?"

"It's mom's bear but I brought it with me to Grandma Kate's. She calls is Mr. Fuzzy but I'm on a first name basis with him. His full name is Floomikumaraswamy but I call him Floom-Floom for short. Mom talks to him all the time." he set the bear down on the couch, "I'll be back in later."

Lucas looked over at the bear, which seemed to be staring at him. After a few minutes of silence, he snapped, "I'm not going to talk to a stuffed animal."

The bear looked sad. Or maybe Lucas was just going crazy. But it looked really upset with him, "Quit looking at me like that."

The bear now looked like it was scowling at him, "Quit doing that, you're not the one who lost the girl of your dreams to her stupid step-brother who can't even perform properly!"

I am talking to this bear, Lucas realized, I really am going crazy.

"I'm not talking to you anymore." not wanting to see the bear looking at him anymore, he pushed it off the couch and watched it land face-down on the floor.

Kate opened her front door and frowned when she saw Nicole, "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to Lucas." Nicole retorted.

"Why?"

"So the two of us can elaborately plan your death." Nicole replied sarcastically, "I just need to talk to him. I was going to talk to him last night but it got too late. It's really important."

"I'm sure it is. God, I don't understand why my son seems to enjoy entertaining whores so much. First Sami and now you." Kate said in a disgusted tone.

"Let me in." Nicole tried pushing past Kate but Kate pushed her off the front step and slammed the door quickly.

Nicole took a deep breath to calm herself. She was trying to find an open window she could get in through when she noticed Will sliding open a window upstairs.

"Come around the side of the house and I'll open the back door for you." he said, leaving his position next to the window. Nicole frowned but went around to the back door. Will was waiting for her.

"Did you come to talk to my dad to try and convince him to stop the wedding?" Will asked, his eyes lighting up excitedly.

Nicole smiled patiently at Will, peering further into the house for signs of Lucas. She had to talk to him right away. She was not going to let Sami marry Brady, "Something like that. Where is he? Can I talk to him?"

Will grinned, "Sure. He's been confiding in mom's teddy bear for the last little while so I'm sure he'll be happy to have a real person to talk to."

A teddy bear? Please tell me he hasn't pulled a Jan Spears on me and turned into a useless lunatic, Nicole thought. Will frowned when he entered the living room.

"He must have went in the kitchen." Will pointed to a door, then bent down to pick up the bear on the floor, "I have to go now. Grandma Marlena and Grandpa John said they'd come pick me up and drive me down to the wedding early and they should be here by now." Will left the room and Nicole walked through the kitchen doors. Lucas was sitting at the kitchen table.

"Were you really talking to a teddy bear?" Nicole asked him, sitting down on the chair across from his.

Lucas looked up in surprise, "No. But the bear was creepy so I came in here. How did you get in?"

"Will let me in." Nicole answered, "Lucas, I have to tell you something about the wedding. I overheard Brady and Sami talking last night and-"

"Nicole, I don't want to talk about it." Lucas stood up, "If she wants to be with Brady, if that's what's going to make her happy, I'm not going to interfere." he stood up and started walking away from Nicole.

Nicole also stood up and grabbed a dish towel sitting on the counter, "Hey, I was talking to you, Lucas Roberts. Do not walk away from me like that. I will punish you." she whipped him in the butt with the dishtowel as hard as she could.

"Ow! Dammit, Nicole, what did I ever do to you?"

"You were born."

"Sorry!"

"I know you're sorry, now apologize." Nicole pushed him back into the chair, "Now, you are going to listen to me, got it?"

"Fine." Lucas said resentfully.

"Okay, I overheard Sami and Brady arguing. Sami said she wasn't going to marry Brady and that she was going to sort things out with you. Then Brady threatened to tell you everything."

"What did he mean by that?"

"He said something about the two of them making some kind of a bet where she couldn't fall in love with you or she would have to marry him or something like that. I guess that's why she wouldn't tell anyone about the two of you. He said that he was going to make her out to sound like a gold-digging whore. And according to Sami, she tried to call off the bet but Brady wouldn't let her. See, she doesn't want to marry him but Brady is pretty much forcing her to do it." Nicole finished.

"Then she doesn't care about him at all. Thank God." Lucas felt a surge of relief and hope, "You know, I thought I had done something wrong when I found out Sami was going to marry Brady. I felt like she thought she would be better of with Brady. I thought I had screwed up but I didn't know how I had screwed up and I just felt awful."

"Awwwww." Nicole tilted her head and her eyes were sympathetic, "I never knew you had feelings. I thought you were just a walking hormone with a nice body."

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong." Lucas mumbled.

"What were you thinking, falling in love with the woman who has hurt you too many times to count anyways?" Nicole asked.

"I wasn't thinking, I was feeling."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww." she stretched the aw out even longer that time and Lucas looked up and glared at her.

"Don't you dare say 'aw' one more time." Lucas said, looking annoyed.

"Aw, you're blushing."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. That is so cute." Nicole continued to mock him.

"What do you want me to do exactly?" Lucas asked, getting her off the subject of how cute he was, "You want me to stop wedding?"

"Exactly." Nicole grinned, "And if I remember correctly, you're my slave until June. So, I'm not asking you to stop the wedding, I'm telling you to."

"All right." Lucas stood up, "I guess we should go then."

Before he and Nicole could even step outside the kitchen, Kate barged into the room, flanked by two large, muscular men, "You're not going anywhere! This wedding will go on. I will not let you be with Sami."

"Are those your new boyfriends, Kate?" Nicole asked, not looking worried at all.

"No, they're my neighbors. They baby-sit Will for me when I'm at work." Kate responded icily.

"You let those thugs baby-sit my son?" Lucas looked offended.

"I resent that." one of the men said, "We're not as stupid as we look."

"Not to mention the fact that they are going to help make sure you don't do something you'll regret." Kate turned to hand the men a pile of ropes, "Go ahead. Tie them up."