Okay, here's chapter two. This is the final chapter that will take place in the present. The next chapter (which I already have written, but will wait to post) will take place six years from now. Hope you like it and please continue to review!!
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Maxie frowned and pounded on Lulu's bedroom door again. It had been three days, she thought, three days since Lulu had come out of her room. She'd called in sick at work and refused say what was wrong.
Maxie didn't want to admit it, but she was worried about her friend.
"Lulu! Open this door! Get your ass out of bed!" She yelled through the closed door. She could hear rustling and knew that Lulu was probably ignoring her, again, the same way she'd done for three days. "Come on, Lulu. It can't be that bad." She sighed, reached up to grab a bobby pin from her hair, "okay, I'm coming in!"
It was fair warning, she thought as she used the pin to pick the lock. It was ironic, she thought, as it had been Lulu who had first shown her this trick. Satisfied when she heard the lock click open, Maxie pushed open the door. The room was dark and cold. The curtains were pulled shut and Lulu was huddled in the middle of the bed.
"What's up with you? You call in sick and don't say a word as to what's wrong. And Carly keeps calling me to see if you are okay. I keep telling her that you won't tell me anything," Maxie snapped, relieved that Lulu was at least alive.
If you could call it that in her state.
She reached to open the curtains, letting in the sunshine. Lulu groaned and pulled the pillow over her eyes. Maxie grabbed it before she could roll over again. "No. I demand to know what's wrong. You are usually the strong one. Nothing gets at you. You look like someone died." Then she stopped, raising one perfectly shaped eyebrow. "No one died, right?"
Lulu rolled her eyes, pushed herself up in bed. It was blatantly obvious that Maxie wasn't going to leave until Lulu told her what was wrong. "No, no one died. Although right now I think I'd be better off."
Maxie frowned. "Lulu, what are you talking about? Are you sick or something?"
"No! I'm not sick." She sighed, deciding that it was probably better to just get it over with. "I'm pregnant."
Maxie didn't catch herself as well as Carly had, Lulu thought, as Maxie's eyes widened and she looked very surprised. "Wow. That's news."
"Is that all you can say?" Lulu demanded, twisting to plant her feet on the ground. But as soon as she started to rise, she realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. "Oh god," she managed as she made a beeline for the bathroom.
Maxie hurried after her as she heard Lulu drop to the floor and heave into the toilet. "Are you okay?"
Taking an experimental breath, Lulu pushed her hair out of her eyes and sat back on her knees. "I hope so because I hate doing that. And I just told Kelly Lee that I didn't really get sick. I probably jinxed it."
Maxie walked to the sink, wet a wash cloth and handed it to Lulu. "You've already seen a doctor?"
Lulu nodded, "Carly was the first person I told and she dragged me to the clinic. I'm healthy."
"That's good. Um…Lulu…can I ask who's the father?" Maxie questioned.
Lulu looked down at her lap then back at Maxie. "Johnny. It was a one-night stand. One night and now this." She lifted her hands in a helpless defense.
Maxie hid her shock this time. "Oh Lulu…have you told him?"
Lulu shook her head firmly. "No, right now I have no plans to tell him. I just can't. I don't know what I'm going to do yet."
"Well, you can't sit on the bathroom floor and you definitely can't spend the next seven months or so in your dark bedroom. You might as well get ready, go to work or something. Do something. It'll take your mind off the baby for a while," Maxie said practically, taking Lulu's arm and pulling her up off the floor.
Lulu sighed, knowing that Maxie was right. "Is Kate pissed that I called in for so many days?"
Maxie shook her head. "She's out of the country. She's in Paris right now. I think that you chose the right time to call in sick. But you really need to get back to the office. As much as I don't like to admit it, I need your help."
Lulu smiled, knowing just how hard it was for Maxie to admit helplessness. "Well in that case, give me an hour. I'll meet you at the office."
She moved quickly now, back to her bedroom. Maxie, satisfied that she had done her good deed and friendly duty for the day, slipped into her coat and picked up her purse. She called out a goodbye as Lulu raced back into the bathroom.
Even as she made her way toward the elevator, she knew that while Lulu kept a strong façade of being okay, inside she was terrified. Maxie could only hope that things would get better when Lulu started keeping up with her regular routine.
If they weren't, it was going to be a long next few months.
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It had taken the entire hour for Lulu to make life-altering decisions. By the time she was walking out of the elevator into Crimson's office, Lulu had decided that there was no way she could stay in Port Charles.
Not if she wanted to keep this a secret, she thought, because Johnny was no doubt see her and know the truth if she waited so long.
Lulu would tell her brothers and father, and then she would leave, just go. She didn't know where, but knew that she was resourceful enough to make a decent life for both herself and her child.
Maxie was sitting at her desk, manning both phone lines. She smiled slightly when she saw Lulu stow her bag under her desk and reach for the phone.
"Hello, this is Lulu from Crimson. How can I help you?"
She worked the rest of the day in automatic. She knew that she just needed to get through it. And finally she did.
But then the real test came when she was walking up to Windermere from the launch. She'd called Lucky and asked him and Elizabeth to meet her at Nickolas'. She didn't tell them why, just that she needed to see everyone.
She smiled at Alfred when he let her inside. "Hello Alfred."
"Ms. Lulu, what a pleasure to see you," he replied, taking her coat off her shoulders.
She took a deep breath and walked inside the parlor, where Nickolas, Lucky and Elizabeth were waiting. "Hi."
"Lulu, what's wrong? You sounded funny on the phone," Lucky said. He glanced at his brother.
She shrugged. "I'm fine physically. I'm not sick or anything." She took a deep breath, decided to just get it over with. "I'm pregnant."
"What?" Nickolas could barely make out the words.
Elizabeth was the first to recover. "Have you seen a doctor?"
Lulu nodded, sat on the arm of the couch. "Yes, a few days ago. Carly took me. I'm healthy…and so it the baby."
"The baby?" Lucky echoed, even as Elizabeth elbowed him in the gut. He looked slightly sheepish.
Nickolas rose, stalked to the liquor cabinet, and poured himself a finger of whiskey. He knocked it down and turned, to stare hard at his sister. "Who's the father?"
Lulu hesitated. She knew that neither of her brothers had approved of Johnny, especially when she was dating him. "Johnny."
"Johnny! You slept with him. I thought the two of you were through," Lucky erupted before Elizabeth could stop him. "What were you thinking?"
"I will admit that I wasn't thinking. It was one night and has not been repeated. Johnny and I can't be together," Lulu said quickly.
"What are you going to do?" Elizabeth asked quietly, knowing what Lulu's other choice had been.
"I'm going to keep the baby," Lulu began, finishing when she saw Nickolas start to say something. "But I'm not staying in Port Charles."
"Where will you go," Lucky asked.
She shrugged. "I don't know. Somewhere far away. I don't want Johnny to know that I am carrying his child. There's no other way. So I have to go away."
"For how long?"
"Forever," Lulu said. She knew that she might not be able to return home for a long time.
Nickolas set down the glass, stared hard at his sister. "Where will you go?"
"I don't know. New York, somewhere else. Right now I have no idea," she admitted.
"How about Greece?"
Lulu frowned at Nickolas. "What?"
"Greece. I have a compound there. It's fully staffed; the island is a nice place to raise a child. It's safe. It's yours if you want it."
"Are you certain?" Lulu was afraid to hope, this would make things so much easier.
Nickolas nodded, moved to the desk and picked up the phone. "Just let me make a call. How soon do you want to leave?"
Lulu took a deep breath. This was it, she thought. "Day after tomorrow. I think that I can wrap everything up at work by then. I have to tell Maxie what I'm doing and everything. Same with Carly." She stopped, smiling at him. "Thank you, Nickolas."
"I'd rather have you someplace safe. And this way, we can all come visit you…because I doubt that you will want to come back to Port Charles."
She shook her head, rose to leave. "No, not right now. I don't know when." Even as Alfred brought her jacket and she shrugged into it, she turned. "Thank you, Nickolas. All of you, thanks. I couldn't do this alone."
"You won't be alone, Lulu," Elizabeth said quietly. "Even if you are in Greece, we are only a phone call away."
"Thanks for that as well. It's nice to know. I need to go home, pack, get things ready, You'll let me know if you can arrange things?" she asked Nickolas.
He nodded, dialing the phone. "I'll call."
Elizabeth moved to Lulu, pulled her into a hug. "I wish you luck, Lulu. I hope that you are making the right decision for you. Because I know just how hard it is to be a single mother. I'm here if you need me, for anything. Advice, whatever."
Lulu smiled, squeezed Elizabeth briefly. "Thank you. I will surely take you up on that. I think that I will need all the advice I can get."
Lucky came next. He hugged his sister, placed a kiss on her cheek. "Be safe, Lulu. I expect updates. Especially after the baby is born. I need to know that the two of you are okay."
"Of course. You can come visit. Nickolas is making it incredibly easy on me. But I would love to live in Greece," Lulu finished. "I better go."
Without waiting for anyone to respond, Lulu hurried out of the room and toward the front door. She blindly rode the launch back to Port Charles, thinking that she would have to tell her father and Ethan still.
And she only had two days to do it.
It was jolting still, she thought, to know that everything she knew would be changing in just a matter of days. But, she had made a decision and would have to live with it.
She knew that thing would be different, but she was too much a Spencer to not be intrigued with the idea of an adventure.
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Please review! They make my day…stay tuned for the chapter three either Sunday or Monday…
