"Sociopaths," Nicole rooted around in her bag searching for some aspirin while Sami lay in a heap on the bed, "They find out what you want them to be and they become it."

With a groan Sami lifted her head the slightest bit to look at her friend, "But how could he know? He only just met me."

"Who knows? Men have their ways," she grabbed a paper cup from the sink in the bathroom and filled it with water and then deposited both into Sami's hands. She sank down into a chair next to the bed, trying not to let her defeat show, "Men suck. It's not something new."

"I just don't get why he did it."

"It must be some chemical in their brains. They see a pretty woman and its their first instinct to lie. Don't ask me why, but they can't seem to help it. Look at my life, Eric is the king of liars and I never would have expected it from him."

"You know I don't believe that. I still think you should talk to him, Nicole. You love each other."

She looked off to the side at nothing in particular, "That's not always enough."

…………………………..

With a huff, Nicole smoothed her hair in the mirror and tried in vain to make it look less poofy. Claude would be here any second and she had to look her best. Sami, as usual, had made the spur of the moment decision that they would be going home tomorrow morning, so she had to find a way to say goodbye and she wanted to make him suffer a little. Then at least one man would miss her.

The hotel phone caught her gaze out of the corner of her eye again and Sami's words ran through her head "you should talk to him." But what did Sami know, anyway? He hadn't tried to find her or contact her. He was probably just at home sitting on his lazy ass. He might not even know she was gone, it wasn't like they spent huge amounts of time together anyway.

And yet, the pull of the phone was getting stronger and it wouldn't really hurt to talk to him.

…………………………

Eric Brady sat at the kitchen table in the apartment he shared with his wife just staring at a bowl of cereal. It was almost completely full of Rice Krispies, but they were quickly become a soggy mess of goo. He didn't really care either.

The apartment was so lonely without her in it. It was almost another place completely. A cold, deserted horrible place. And all he had left was a message on the answering machine, "Eric, I'm leaving you. Don't forget the electric bill's due soon."

What the hell kind of goodbye was that? He had almost made the decision to try and eat the mangled mush in front of him when the phone, blessedly, rang. Distractedly, he picked it up while in the process of dumping the cereal in the garbage, "Hello?"

Dead silence. There was no one there, "Hello?"

He heard a sharp intake of breath and a crazy connection was made in his mind, "Nicole? Babe, is that you?" his hand gripped the phone a little tighter, an unconscious assurance that she wouldn't slip away, "Where are you, Nicky? Are you okay?"

Exactly fifty-six seconds of agonizing silence and then he heard the receiver click softly back into place on the other end, "Nicole?"

…………………………

Okay, so calling hadn't been the best idea, but how could she have known that. He had sounded so desperate, too, almost like he actually missed her. She almost reached out for the phone again, but fought the impulse down. It would be a sign a weakness and Nicole Walker-Brady was not weak.

Any deliberations that were about to continue inside of her mind were interrupted by the knock on the door. Checking her hair once more in the mirror, she opened the door expecting to find Claude on the other side, but instead came face to face with the largest bouquet of flowers she could ever remember seeing.

The flowers shifted to show a man she wanted to punch on her friend's behalf, "Look, I just want to…" he finally realized Sami hadn't answered the door and quickly changed his approach, "Is she here?"

"No," he walked in without an invitation and Nicole had to roll her eyes.

"Okay we've got to talk. Is she okay?"

"She's fine. She's getting our tickets home right now," she moved over to the mirror deciding that the dangly earrings she was wearing didn't go with her outfit, "Is this some sort of genetic thing? A guy'll say anything to get laid?"

Lucas lay the flowers on the table and continued to follow Nicole around the room, "Now that's not fair. One, I didn't get laid, and two there was something there. I know it was crazy…"

"Ya think? She's furious."

"Look, I may not have the right name, but I'm the guy. I panic, but I can fix this. You can't let her leave."

She sprayed some perfume in the air and walked through it, giving her an air of superiority, "Well, we're leaving and she'll probably end up marrying Brandon."

"That's ridiculous, he's not good enough for her."

"Hey, you don't even know him. He's a doctor, that's every girl's dream man."

"Not Sami's." Just the thought was enough to make him rip his hair out.

She moved over to toss some lipstick in her purse and Lucas really wished she'd stop being so distracted, "There's nothing else you can do. Why'd you lie to her like that."

"I literally had to, okay. She was going to leave and I couldn't let that happen," she continued moving until he grabbed her elbow, "Can you just sit down for a second? Please?"

Finally Nicole relented and he seated her in a chair. He ran his fingers through his hair and prepared what he was going to say, this was his last shot, "Alright, I'm not supposed to be in Paris right now. I should be in New York leading a really unsatisfying life where my mother visits me every weekend. I work my ass off for this idiot who has no idea what he's doing. He's only in the company because he's the bosses' cousin or something.

'Anyway, he was supposed to take this trip, but he got measles. Measles at forty-three. So they sent me, which is ridiculous because I'm not even close to the next highest up. And I wasn't supposed to be out on the Champs-Elysees, either. I went to see a movie that night, but it sucked, so I left. So I was just walking around, about to go back to my hotel room, and then bam," His hands were gesturing wildly and he finally moved to kneel in front of her to make her see the impact last night had had.

"And she was there and it was amazing. It was like this instant connection, it was something that had never happened to me before. I looked into her eyes and I couldn't leave. It was physically impossible. And something came over me…"

"Mania?" Nicole's disbelief was plain.

"Whatever. She fell in love with me too, by the way."

"You met her last night."

"It only takes a second. But she started walking away and I had no idea what to do. I prayed to God to give me a sign, just some way to keep her there with me. I couldn't let her walk out of my life forever. And she said the name. Granted, it wasn't my name, but it was a chance," he spread his arms in the centuries old sign of appeal, "If that's not destiny, then I don't know anything."

Nicole looked at him, really looked at him and she couldn't help being touched, "That's really romantic," she lowered her head to look at him more closely, "Is it a lie?"

He let out a growl of frustration and shot up to his feet, "It's a name for God's sake. You know this is ludicrous. You know she's crazy, and this guy, by the way could be some pervert. He could be a criminal, or married, or really sick," Lucas dropped down on a chair and leaned in towards her, "He could be some self-righteous, holier-than-thou idiot with a hero complex. Sami would hate that."

Reluctantly, Nicole nodded her head, "Yeah she would."

"I mean, realistically, what're the odds that he's some fantastically great guy."

Thinking over the men she'd known in her life, she once again found herself agreeing with him, "About ten billion to one."

"Exactly," he slammed his hand down on the table in triumph, "Do I have an ally?"

Nicole was interrupted in her assent, by a knock on the already open door, "Nicole, are you ready?"

Claude stood with a single flower in his hand and confusion on his face. Quickly, she stood up and grabbed her purse, "Yeah, I'm all set," she gestured off to her left, "This is Lucas, Sami's friend."

He nodded in comprehension and she flashed him a smile, completely forgetting that she had been in the middle of a conversation. This would kill Eric if he knew. She was half way out the door when Lucas called her name looking for an answer. She considered it for only a half a second before replying, "I'll see what I can do."

I know there wasn't much lumi action, or any really, but let's consider it a transition. It's much better for Lucas to have Nicole on his side.