Chapter 31

Elizabeth was standing at the nurses station lost in thought. She had called her Grams and asked her to baby-sit Cameron and Jake. Jason had always planned their 'dates' so she decided to plan one for tonight. She had called him and left a voice mail for him to let him know her plans to send the boys out so they could spend time together. It was a unseasonably warm day so hoping that the night would be the same, she was thinking they cold go for a ride on his bike then grab dinner.

Monica approached her and pulled her from her thoughts. "Good afternoon Elizabeth."

"Hey Monica." Elizabeth replied.

"How are the boys doing?" Monica asked.

Elizabeth smiled, "They are great… bonding with Jason, he is wonderful with them. I would love for you to spend some time with them. We should arrange some time for you to come over and see them."

"That would be great. Definitely your house though, I don't think you want to bring them to my house till they are old enough to be warned about Tracey and Edward… not to mention with Luke living there I do not want you to feel uncomfortable."

"Thank you." Elizabeth chuckled.

"How is Jason?" Monica asked sincerely.

"Did Em tell you about us?"

"I am afraid that she has been so busy since the wedding between work, packing and the holidays I have not had time to sit and really talk with her, if everything ok with you and Jason?"

Elizabeth smiled, "Oh yea, its better then ok… we are engaged."

Monica's face lit up, "That is absolutely wonderful. I am so happy for you two, I really, really am." She looked at her left hand and spotted the ring. "Oh my goodness, that ring is beautiful… Congratulations Elizabeth. Be sure to tell Jason I said so."

"I will. I work tomorrow but how about the next day?"

"I work in the morning and can come over after my shift, say one o'clock?" Monica suggested.

"That works for me."

"I feel silly saying this but I don't know where you live."

Elizabeth laughed and picked up a pen. "Here is my address and I put my cell number on there in case plans change or anything."

"Sounds great. Gotta get back to my rounds. It was good seeing you Liz."

"You too Monica."

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"Lucky, how have you been?" Cruz said to Lucky as he walked into the PCPD.

"I've been better. How about you?"

"Workin' on this warehouse explosion investigation, I assume you have heard about it. Speaking of work, are you still on leave?" Cruz asked taking a seat at his desk.

"Yes I am still on leave, for now at least. I did hear about the explosion on the docks, any leads?" Lucky asked.

"Nothing yet… What brings you down here, I guess you are not here to return to work?"

Lucky looked over his shoulder and saw Rick walk in to the building. "I uh, I'm here to talk to Mac."

Cruz picked up on a change in Lucky's form. "Everything ok Lucky?" Lucky shrugged. "Well I am here if you need to talk." Cruz said.

Lucky's eyes followed Rick till he left the room, obviously heading toward his office. He quickly cut off his conversation with Cruz and headed to Rick's office. Cruz sat at his desk a little confused. Lucky did not head to Mac's office, instead he headed toward Rick's office. What would Lucky want with Rick?

Lucky entered Rick's office and shut the door behind him.

"How is everything going?" Rick asked.

"So far so good. I do get the feeling that I am being tailed though… maybe it is just paranoia."

"It is quite possibly that Joey is having you tailed to be sure that you are not setting them up. I am sure that they did a background check on you and know you are a detective." Rick assured him.

"And you are a D.A." Lucky shot back.

"So, are you sure we can trust Sam?" Rick asked.

Lucky rolled his eyes "Look, I know the two of you have a past, she is my partner in this, not yours so leave the worrying to me. I just wanted to let you know that we are all set for tomorrow night."

"You could have called me and told me that. Remember that we aren't exactly drinking buddies so you stopping by to see me will raise questions."

Lucky stood from the chair. "Well if anyone asks tell them I stopped by to push you to go after Elizabeth for perjury in Jason's trial."

Rick laughed, "Whatever, we all know that will not happen… Diane would bury us, even I would admit that."

"Whatever, I'll be in touch." Lucky said as he left Rick's office.

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"Hey boss."

"What's up Max?" Sonny said into the phone. He was sitting in his office with Jason.

"Not much. Lucky only left his house this morning to go to the bank and he went to the PCPD a little while ago. My guess is to nose around about the explosion."

"See if you can find out from one of or guys on the inside who he talked to."

"I am already on that boss, I am meeting with someone shortly." Max said. "No further information on Sam, she spent the day with Alexis and Kristina."

"Call me when you have more." Sonny hung the phone up and looked up at Jason.

He rubbed his hand on his forehead. "What is your take Jase?"

"I don't know, we have Lucky, the Perez family, the warehouse explosion and the shipment that was intercepted. Whoever the link between them all may not matter. It is obvious that the Perez's are looking to acquire Alcazar's waterfront property and run us out of town at the same time, same thing Zacharra's and Trevor wanted to do and failed. I'm guessing that their next move is going to be another way to try to immobilize us like the explosion and lost shipment did." Jason sucked in a deep breath. "What worries me the most is not what the Perez's are going to do because we can handle them, but what Lucky and Sam are going to do. I know that their motivation here is not purely financial, they want revenge."

Sonny nodded, "Yea, we need to keep the extra guards on Elizabeth and the kids. You need to tell her in case she sees Lucky. She needs to be prepared."

"I will tell her tonight." Jason said standing from the chair. He left Sonny's office and finally listened to the voice mail Elizabeth had left for him hours ago. She was not going to like his response to it, there was no way that the boys were going to Audrey's tonight.

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Jason walked in the house to find it dark. He looked up the steps and saw a light peaking through the crack of the door to their bedroom. He climbed the steps and went in. Elizabeth appeared to be getting ready for the date that she had planned. She was wearing a pair of jeans that were extra snug and a pair of boots that came up over them to her calves.

"Hey." He finally said.

"Hey there to you too, I was about to call my other boyfriend to take me out tonight. I hadn't heard from you." She smiled walking over and pulling his head down for a quick kiss.

"Sorry, it was a busy day. I just got your message a little while ago. Did you already drop the boys off at your Grams?" Jason asked.

"Yea, about twenty minutes ago. I was thinking we could go for s ride since it is not too cold out then grab dinner." She said as she pulled her hair back.

"We can't go." He sighed, "And I think we should go get the boys."

Her neck quickly turned so she could look at Jason "What! Why can't we go?"

"We need to keep them here for now, till I know it is safe."

"But the guards are there, they should be fine." She said reassuringly.

"No, I'm sorry, we can't tonight." He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed.

She shook her head. "I've been looking forward to this all day."

"I'm sorry, I would've called earlier but I just got the message. I would just feel better if the boys were here with us tonight."

She put her pins on the dresser, turned and walked out of the room mumbling on her way out, "Fine lets go get them."

He could tell she was upset. By the time he caught up to her downstairs she already had her coat on. "I'm sorry Elizabeth."

"Stop apologizing Jason, let's just go."

She turned toward the door and he grabbed her arm, turning her back to him, "Please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad Jason, just disappointed." He closed the distance between them and pulled her into a hug but she pulled away from him. "Jason, don't… I don't want to get upset. I don't want Grams or the boys seeing me upset."

"I don't like seeing you upset either."

She looked away from him, "Let's go." She said as she opened the door.