Tugging hard on the vine, Elizabeth gritted her teeth and dug in her heels and gave one more try. Standing up she snarled at the overgrown shrubs that were taking over the yard. Blowing at a stray piece of hair which refused to stay in her ponytail, Elizabeth looked at the minimal amount of headway she'd actually made.
Zip. Nada. None.
She'd been meaning to attack the yard for the last couple of weeks. Each time she tried to set aside some time, something always got in the way. But, after her first disastrous week of teaching, Elizabeth needed hard labor to help clear her mind. So far she'd managed to get a few blisters and a tear in the knee of her jeans. The overgrown weeds and shrubs were winning and if she wasn't mistaken, were gaining ground.
To be fair, it wasn't the teaching part that had been devastating. It was the parents who turned her week into a living nightmare. Mostly, it was Alexis Lansing and her never-ending gripe session. The woman was insane. If she were in the office any more than she was now, the school district would need to start cutting the woman a check.
But it wasn't just Mrs. Lansing. It was the other parents too. Who wanted their children transferred to Mrs. Kennedy's classroom for absolutely no reason at all. It didn't bode well on her already plummeting lack of confidence. The only consolation was Debra's reassurance that neither her nor her teaching abilities were in question, but the mix of students -Which Elizabeth found was made of Mrs. Kennedy's rejects. - were problematic. In other words, it wasn't her, but the hand she'd been dealt.
As if she didn't have enough problems there'd been Wednesday night. Never in her entire life had she been so humiliated. The night was without a doubt a miserable failure. Not that she should be all that shocked. Blind dates typically never fared well. Especially for her.
"Still mad at me?" Turning her head to where Lucky stood, she wondered how she hadn't heard his car approaching. Sneaky little bastard probably parked a mile away. Then low crawled into hostile territory.
"I'm not talking to you." Picking up the garden sheers, Elizabeth saw Lucky gulp from the corner of her eye. She should beat him over the head with them. After the fiasco of the dinner date from hell. . . Almost growling, Elizabeth attacked the vines with a vengence.
"Elizabeth, I said I was sorry. Emily is humiliated and thinks you hate her now." Elizabeth's cheeks were red and he was pretty sure it had nothing to do the damage she'd been doing to the yard's overgrowth.
Knowing she wasn't getting anywhere with all the hacking she was doing, Elizabeth considered her options. She could stay mad at her best friend until she was good and ready to forgive him. Or she could let bygones be bygones and forgive him. There was the third option. She could force him into another day of slave labor so he could work off his stupidity.
"Grab the rake and give me a hand. I'll consider forgiving you."
He didn't waste time as he snagged the abandoned rake near the large oak she'd pointed to and got to work. It only took five minutes of total silence before Elizabeth stopped and turned to where Lucky was.
"His wife showed up Lucky. As in the woman who he promised until death did he part. How in the world could you or Emily think I'd be interested in someone who's already married."
"He's been separated for almost a year now. He signed the divorce papers last week." Lucky muttered. "Gia moved to Manhattan four months ago. Honestly. I think Zander more shocked than we were."
"Was he shocked before, or after his sweet tempered wife dumped a pitcher of ice water in my lap? And you may want to remind them about their pending divorce. Because, if I'm not mistaken, they were making out behind the potted palm in the corner when we left."
Looking down to hide the amusement on his face, Lucky jerked back when she swatted him. "Hey stop that!"
"We were in the middle of a packed restaurant when that screaming banshee humiliated me." Ceasing her attack, Elizabeth spun on her heel and stomped over to where she'd left her bottled water. "Lucky no more blind dates. I mean it."
Holding his hands up in the air, Lucky nodded. "You betcha."
"Fine. I'll forgive you." Grumbling, Elizabeth looked around the yard. "But only if you consent to becoming my slave for the day."
Looking as if he was trying to find a reason to back out, Lucky opened his mouth a few times before admitting to defeat. "So what're you trying to get done here?"
"The impossible." Sighing at the work ahead, Elizabeth thought about throwing in the towel and suggesting they order pizza and watch movies for the rest of the day. "I just want to start with the overgrowth."
Whistling, Lucky looked around. "You sure you don't want to buy a new house? One that's landscaped?"
It was tempting, but she knew once everything was finished the little cottage at the edge of the woods was going to be like out of a picture of some fairy tale. "Let's start in the back. There's a few fallen tree limbs and stuff I can't move by myself."
"I knew you were just using me for my muscles."
"Lucky." Letting her eyes roam from the top if his head down to his scruffy sneakers, Elizabeth gave a snort. "I may be using you for transportation until my car is out of the garage, but you have nothing to worry about when it comes to your body. I'll leave that for Emily."
Rounding the side of the cottage to the back yard, she stopped and looked at the work ahead of them. Where the front yard held some promise, the backside of the house was in a sorry state. The woods lining the back of the house seemed to be creeping into her yard. It was going to be a hard war to win, but she wasn't going to back down now.
"Get me a can of gasoline and a match." Surveying the area, Lucky puffed out his chest and placed his hands on his hips.
"Why?"
"Cause the fastest way to get this crap cleared is by setting fire to it."
"We're not lighting my backyard on fire." But . . . Using her inner eye, Elizabeth tilted her head to the side and started to paint over the chaos, turning it into the enchanted yard she knew was hidden somewhere beneath. She could see a lush green lawn, at dusk, when the lightning bugs came out and blinked invitingly to all the children. There were thick gardens of Hostas and the smell of lilac filled the air. A flagstone patio near the house would be the perfect spot for outdoor meals. But what the yard also needed . . . "A fire pit."
"What?"
"We're going to build a fire pit." With a nod, Elizabeth found the perfect spot in the picture she created in her head. "Over there." Pointing toward the corner of the yard that looked wild and foreboding, Elizabeth had to see what it'd look like cleared.
"Did you just say we were going to build a fire pit?"
"No." Ready to make a dent, Elizabeth shook her head at her bemused friend. "Not today."
Working side by side they cleared away a large chunk of the undergrowth. By noon Elizabeth had told Lucky about her last week, not leaving a thing out. She vented her frustration over the parent's odd behavior. Her amusement with some of her students peculiar habits. But she spent the most time discussing her most perplexing student. Michael Morgan. And his absent father.
"I get a feeling he doesn't like me." Putting her hands on her lower back, Elizabeth leaned back and stretched out the kinks. "And he has no idea who Harry Potter is!"
"Elizabeth, not everyone does." Making a face, Lucky said. "Okay, perhaps everyone but him."
"Did you know Egypt is one of the hottest and sunniest places in the world and only gets about 4 inches of rain a year? Or that Italy is only slightly larger than the state of Arizona?"
Laughing, Lucky shook his head. "Ah, no. Didn't know you were into world trivia."
"I'm not." Brushing her hair out of her face, Elizabeth fanned herself. "Michael told me this. A five-year-old is smarter than I am."
"I doubt that."
"No, really. And you know something else. I've yet to meet his father." Looking at the progress they'd made so far, Elizabeth's eyes stopped on what looked liked a small opening in the bushes.
"Jason? Elizabeth you met him - what is it?" Elizabeth was pulling at a few stubborn vines, before she cried out in triumph.
"Lucky look!" Stepping aside, Elizabeth's grin went from ear to ear. Like the discovery of a trail was better than sliced bread. "I wonder where it leads."
After a sweaty few hours of back breaking work of clearing the yard, Lucky was all for a little adventure. Anything to get Elizabeth to take a break. "There's only one way to find out."
Stepping onto the path, Elizabeth gasped. It was like walking into another world. Everything was so eerily quiet, except for the sounds from the birds calling to one another in the trees. Above a canopy of green leaves kept the sun's baking rays from entering. Keeping the forest cool and peaceful.
"This is perfect." Hurrying forward, the yard work completely forgotten, Elizabeth's imagination kicked into hyper drive. The trail was narrow, as it wound its way deeper into the woods. Occasionally skirting around a large boulder that had the nerve to get in its way.
"Lucky? Do you remember when we were ten and we pretended we were Jedi knights?" The forest brought back memories from a long ago camping trip.
"Yeah." Lucky's lopsided grin widened. "You fell into the river trying to 'save' a group of endangered Ewoks from the Empire."
"Lucky?"
"Yeah?"
"Bite me." Elizabeth looked over her shoulder and smiled.
A group of chattering birds brought her gaze up to the branches well above her head. Unfortunately, at the same time her foot caught on something mid-stride. Throwing her balance off and sending her to the ground. No stranger of crash landings, Elizabeth already had her hands out to brace her fall.
Her palms burned as the brunt of the damage was taken on her left knee and shoulder. For only a brief moment the air was knocked from her lungs. Taking a moment before moving her limbs to assess the damage, Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder when she'd grow out of her 'awkward' stage.
"Are you okay?" Feeling Lucky by her side, Elizabeth opened an eye and looked up. "Am I graceful or what?"
Pushing herself up to a sitting position with Lucky's help, Elizabeth looked down at her injured leg. She'd successfully ripped a hole in the other knee of her jeans, which her bleeding kneecap was sticking from.
"I can't take you anywhere."
"Yeah, well you know . . ." Something caught her eye. "me." Completely forgetting her injuries, Elizabeth crawled over to where something shiny caught her eye. "Hey Lucky did you see -."
Her eyes traveled from the shiny object to the clump of bushes near by. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Every muscle in her body froze and no matter how she tried she couldn't move back. That went for her eyes. Elizabeth wanted to be able to close them. To block out the nightmare that was staring lifelessly back at her.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew Lucky was trying to pull her away. Shouting at her to close her eyes and come with him. But her airless lungs filled and she let out a blood curdling scream.
Taking a sip from the silver flask, he kept in his glove box for situations like this. Luke looked around the front yard of Elizabeth's new home and wondered if he did the right thing by encouraging her to move here. Not that he ever planned on introducing her to Port Charles's underbelly. But he should've known the things he valued most in life would be somehow touched. Which also included Elizabeth.
Draining the last of the contents. He grabbed a cigarette from the pack he kept next to the flask. Her eyes. Damn it. Anyone who knew Elizabeth, knew everything she felt could be seen in her eyes. And what he'd seen . . . His hand shaking again, Luke took a long drag and welcomed the burning in his lungs.
The sound of cars had him looking up at the driveway and sighed in relief. The sooner they could get this done the better.
Stepping down the steps, Luke waited in the middle of the yard.
"What's with the weird message?" Sonny's eyes scanned the house before settling on Luke for answers. Jason stood a few feet away with Johnny and Francis.
"Elizabeth and Lucky found Max."
