Disclaimer: All the characters belong to ABC. I own more than enough pairs of shoes, but I don't own them.
"Triple L"
The jolt of the train arriving at the station woke Elizabeth from her dreamless sleep. She smiled to find herself leaning into Lucky's chest, his arms around her.
"Hi." Lucky's voice gently tickled her ear.
"Hi," she replied sleepily. "Where are we?"
"Campbell," he told her. "We can get to where we're going pretty easy from here."
Elizabeth looked out the window at the rapidly darkening sky. "How long will it take?" she asked, a small note of worry in her voice.
They gathered their bags and followed the streams of passengers into the station. Lucky led them over to a kiosk of phones and dug a single quarter out of his pocket. Elizabeth did not ask who he intended to call but stood by silently. She was watchful as if standing guard, looking for anything unusual while Lucky dialed.
"Talk to me," Luke's voice crackled over the connection.
Lucky took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy. "Dad, it's me," he started.
"Cowboy?" Luke almost screamed. "It is true, it's really true then. Your mother and I have..."
Lucky cut off his father's exclamations. "I know, Dad, I know. But there's no time now. Just know I'm safe and Elizabeth's with me. Did you get my message?"
"Keep the backpack ready," Luke responded. "You bet I did. What's the destination?"
"Run away from the Triple L, Dad," Lucky told him.Luke understood and sighed, at once elated at knowing his son was alive and disappointed that he was out of his reach, at least for the moment.
"Did Mrs. Hardy get out of town alright?" Lucky's question brought Luke back to earth.
"Yes, Cowboy. Felicia took her and the kids to Texas for a while. She's safe."
"Good," Lucky exhaled. "I have to go, Dad."
"Wait, Lucky," Luke called to his son. "I have to have something to tell your mother. Are you...are you good? Are you okay?"
"I'm alive," Lucky said shortly. "Let that be enough for now."
Luke sighed again. "Okay. We'll see you soon, Cowboy. We love you."
"I know. Same here." Lucky hung up the phone his hand lingering on the receiver. His mind replayed the conversation word by word. Luke's mention of his mother had heartened him. Things hadn't been very good between them when he "died", and that event likely had one of two effects on their relationship. Either their rift had been repaired or it had been torn completely. The mention of Felicia was somewhat surprising. What did the Commissioner's wife have to do with any of this?
"Are you okay?" Elizabeth asked, nothing his thoughtful expression.
Her voice shook him away from his musings and he nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. It's just...my parents." He didn't need to finish she understood him completely.
"You've been dead for almost a year, Lucky," she gently reminded him. "A lot was happening."
"You'll tell me?" he asked. Elizabeth smiled as if to say, 'Of course'. They exited the station and caught the first taxi they saw. They rode in silence., Lucky too engrossed in his thoughts for any real conversation. Elizabeth held tight to his hand, providing whatever kind of comfort she could. After a short time, the taxi dropped them off in front of a rather dingy looking boarding house, the name of "Wallace" above the door.
"Lucky? Where are we?" Elizabeth asked.
At first Lucky only smiled in response. He seemed suddenly to be engrossed now in happy memories. "We're here," he finally answered, suppressing a laugh. Through the front door and to the check in desk Lucky offered no further information but eventually he started to explain. "Once when we were living in Canada, I was maybe eight, I think, I decided to run away."
"Why?" Elizabeth interrupted.
"No reason, really," Lucky told her. "I'd spent my whole life running, but always with my parents. I think I just wanted to try it on my own. I only got this far." He gestured around him. "The guy who owns it was a friend of my dad's. He gave me a room and called my parents. They were here to get me the next morning." He laughed again, wondering at a time when running away had been an act of fun.
Later, after they had settled into their particular dingy room, Lucky asked Elizabeth to tell him about his parents. She told him the truth, at least as far as she knew it. She told him how his disappearance had more of less driven Laura to Stefan, how Luke had reacted to their relationship. Lucky listened to all of this with a stone face. Nothing she was telling him was really shocking. Elizabeth told him about Emily and Juan, about Carly and A.J. She filled him in on everything that had happened in Port Charles since last May. Lucky took all of it in, and then a thought suddenly occurred to him that had not before. "What happened with the art academy?" he asked.
Elizabeth was surprised by his question. She hadn't thought to mention it. "I got in," she told him.
"Why didn't you go?"
Elizabeth sighed. "I'd just lost you, Lucky. I could hardly imagine waking up in the morning knowing this, let alone starting a new life without you. I couldn't bear to leave a place you had called your home and go to place where you weren't there at all."
"I always knew you'd get in," Lucky said softly, smiling.
"You knew it better than I did," Elizabeth admitted. "Are you disappointed that I didn't go?"
Lucky shook his head immediately. "No," he assured you. "It's your life to order, Elizabeth. You could never disappoint me if you follow your heart."
Elizabeth looked at him for a moment in still admiration. She had noted since he returned how much he had changed, both in appearance and manner, but his heart hadn't changed. She knew this now.
"Do you know what you are?" she asked Lucky with a smile.
"What?"
"You're a keeper."
It took a moment for Lucky to remember their previous conversation, over a year ago, but when he did a broad grin spread across his face. "A keeper of what?" he played along.
Elizabeth moved closer to him, only inches from his face and said, "You keep making me love you."
Lucky wanted to kiss her, but at the moment could not stop staring at her face. It was the same Snow White face, pale milk skin and dark hair. Her hair was different, shorter maybe and darker, though perhaps, he thought, that was just because it was winter. Her eyes were different too. There was an age in them, not like the pain that had haunted her after the rape, but more like a ponderous knowledge of the world. "You are so beautiful," he breathed. "You have no idea how much I missed you, missed your face and your eyes and your voice. It was unbearable."
"I know how much I missed you," Elizabeth offered. "It was a physical pain, like getting punched in the stomach every time someone mentioned your name. Your...death was the second terrible thing to happen in my life, but this time it was worse because you weren't there to help me." She looked in his darkening eyes and began to understand what he had meant. "But I wasn't alone. I had Gram and Emily and Nikolas and Jason. I can't imagine having gone through losing you alone." She brushed a strand of dark blonde hair away from his face. "It must have been terrible for you."
Lucky didn't answer her supposition but leaned their foreheads together. He had been torn from her and secluded for so long that being so close now was almost incapacitating.
They talked an hour longer before finally crawling into bed and beneath the blankets together, huddled close for warm protection against the harsh winter storming outside the window. Elizabeth fell asleep quickly, her head cradled on Lucky's shoulder. He laid awake most the night, his eyes closed. He couldn't stop listening to the sounds of her sleeping and feeling the rise and fall of her chest with every breath.
