Elizabeth's Home-

Her dreams were pleasant, filled with nothing but love for the man that she was going to marry again. It was better than the dreams that she had immediately following her first divorce to Ric. Dreams of his destructive qualities taking over both him and her, destroying them both. Now she could only see his beautiful smile as he waited to feel her touch. Elizabeth had loved many people in her time, Jason and Lucky being but two of them, but Ric was something special. Ric was the one that she knew she wanted to be with. She wanted to help him get through all of his problems and she knew that she could do it. He had support now. Not just support from her, but support from his nephew as well. They could keep Ric stabilized, keep him from doing something that he would eventually regret. And then they would have a family. Ric wanted children so much, Elizabeth wanted to help with that. Luckily for her, unlike Courtney, her miscarriage didn't involve the very high chance of never being able to have a child again. She could still have children. It was the only bright spot in the altogether bleak memory of losing the child that she and Ric were going to have. If that baby had not have died things would have been so much different.

Elizabeth was about to kiss Ric in her dream when it ended, her eyes shooting open as she groaned, putting her hand on her face. The phone. It was always the phone. She reached over and grabbed the phone, putting the receiver to her ear. "Hello?"

"Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth sat up, pushing herself against the wooden headboard of her bed. "Em?"

Emily Quartermaine, Elizabeth's dearest friend and closest confidante, giggled on the other end of the phone, "Nikolas called Lucky last night… and it slipped that you're going to get married today!"

Elizabeth laughed with Emily. Emily had an infectious laugh that she could almost never get away from. "Yeah, Ric and I decided that we wanted something small and that we didn't want to wait."

"Not even for me?"

"I'm sorry, Emily, but I didn't want to pull you and Nikolas away from your vacation just to come back and watch me get married again."

"You know I would have."

"I know you would have, and I love you for it, but it was my call to make and I just wanted you and Nikolas to have some more time alone together. Maybe plan a wedding of your own."

"Don't get ahead of yourself…"

"With thousands of white roses, and doves…"

"Elizabeth…"

"And a symphony…"

"Elizabeth Webber, I'm going to hang up on you if you don't stop with this nonsense about planning my wedding!"

"Come on, Emily, you know how we used to do it when we were teenagers. We would think about what was going to happen when we got married. Remember the few times when we had it in our heads that we would get married on the same day?"

"Yeah… I do." Emily sighed, because she knew that in those dreams it involved her marrying Nikolas and Elizabeth marrying Lucky. Now it was going to be different. Elizabeth would always be her dearest friend, but Elizabeth wouldn't be her sister-in-law. She also had reservations about Ric. He had broken Elizabeth's heart before, and Emily would never forgive him for that.

"Em, you okay?"

"Are you sure about this?"

Elizabeth was surprised by the question. "Of course I'm sure about this, why wouldn't I be?"

"Most people don't really try and get married to the same person after the first time…"

"This is Port Charles, Emily, half of the people here end up getting re-married after they get divorced. Look at your parents!"

"I know that, but…"

"Emily," Elizabeth sighed, "I know you're looking out for me, I understand that and I respect you for it, but you can't tell me what to do with my life."

"I'm not!"

"You haven't yet, but you're going to try and tell me that I might be making a mistake, aren't you? You're going to say something about how I shouldn't trust a relationship with Ric again because of what happened the first time. Don't you think that I've thought about that over and over in my head? Don't you think that I tried to stay away from him at first, tried to keep myself from falling in love with him again? Well I did try, Emily, and I couldn't do it. I love Ric Lansing with all my heart, and nothing is going to change that, not even you."

Emily didn't expect a speech, but she could tell that she had struck a nerve. She understood why Elizabeth was getting defensive, there was no doubt in Emily's mind that her best friend needed all the support that she could get when it came to her decision. Ric certainly didn't have the best reputation amongst the people of Port Charles. "I just don't want to see you get hurt again."

"He won't hurt me again, Emily, believe me. I know that Ric is a changed man. He's the man that I fell in love with the first time, he's that and he's so much more…"

"If you say so."

"Tell me you believe me."

"Elizabeth…"

"Tell me you believe me, Emily, because if you don't then I'm going to go into this marriage thinking that my best friend doesn't approve of it, and I don't want that."

Emily fell silent, thinking about what she was going to do. A part of her didn't want to say anything, a part of her wanted Elizabeth to realize what she was getting herself into again, but Emily knew that she couldn't do that to Elizabeth. Elizabeth deserved every bit of happiness that she got and more. "I believe you, Elizabeth, and I wish you the best, both of you."

"Thank you, that means so much to me…"

"Does it count as your wedding present?"

Elizabeth snickered, "No, it doesn't. You're telling me that a rich girl like you and your prince boyfriend can't afford a blender or something?"

"We can buy you one while we're over here… but the voltage difference might not work out that well in the end…"

"Why don't the two of us just agree that you don't need to get me anything…"

"Elizabeth…"

"If you get me something, fine, if you don't, that's also okay. Your support means more than any gift that you could ever think of giving me, Emily."

"I should go," Emily said. "Nikolas and I have reservations to go and eat, I just had to call you before you took that walk… you're going to be beautiful, Elizabeth, not that you already weren't."

"I'll make sure that there are plenty of pictures for you to look at when you come home."

"You'd better!"

"Bye, Emily," Elizabeth put the phone back on the receiver and was ready to try and catch up on her sleep. The moment she put her head on her pillow, however, she was once more interrupted by a different sound. The sound of someone knocking on her front door. Dejected, Elizabeth threw the comforter off her body and walked out of her room towards the door.

"Elizabeth! Time to get up!"

"Ric?" Elizabeth talked through the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I know how much you love to sleep in…"

"Do you think I would really sleep through our wedding?"

"If you had the chance, yes, yes I do."

Elizabeth shook her head, fully aware of the fact that Ric couldn't see her. "You know, its bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding!"

"I thought that was only if the bride was dressed up in her wedding gown."

"No, I don't think so."

"Well I took care of that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Why don't you open the door and find out."

"Ric…"

"Just open the door," Ric pleaded, the grin on his face wide and filled with jovialness. Ric loved being around Elizabeth because when he was around her he felt something that he didn't feel at other times. He felt happy, he felt whole.

"All right…" Elizabeth hesitantly reached over to the doorknob and started to turn it. When she pulled the door open she laughed. Ric was standing there, a blindfold covering his eyes.

"I told you I had it covered," Ric could tell where she was by the sound of her voice. He could be a blind man, never once being able to truly see Elizabeth's physical beauty, but he would love her all the same.

"What are you doing here…"

"I just wanted to have one last moment with you before we had to take our separate paths and get ready, is that so horrible?"

"No, in fact, I think it's actually quite romantic."

"You do?"

"I do." Elizabeth walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him softly on the lips. "There aren't any rules about the bride and groom kissing before the wedding, are there?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Good, because if they had one I wouldn't be able to keep myself in check. And then, tonight…"

"Let's not discuss tonight, shall we?" Ric asked. "Let's just let it happen and see where it takes us…"

"Do you think we can do it this time?" Elizabeth asked, unable to keep the doubt that was swelling inside of her heart a secret forever.

"What?"

"This whole marriage thing… do you really think that we can make it work now?"

"Are you having second thoughts?"

"I just don't want to worry about you again, I don't want to see you kill yourself on the inside because of everything…"

Ric placed his index finger on Elizabeth's lip. "Nothing will ever happen that will destroy our relationship like the last time, Elizabeth. I promise you that. I never want to lose you again, you mean too much to me."

Elizabeth hugged him tightly, believing every word. There were plenty of times when Ric would tell her something that she wasn't sure anything would actually come true, but in that moment, she was a believer.