This one is dedicated to a fellow writer on the site who shares my mutual distaste for the current state of our beloved DiLu. And I swear if they even put Georgie and Dillon back together, I'm beyond over it. Anyhow, I'm going to keep writing those wrongs…
Dillon woke early the next morning with the events of the night before fresh on his mind. Lying in the middle of his plush bed, he could see the top of her messy blonde mop peaking out from beneath the white down comforter. She had slept peacefully for once, not waking at all from the horrible nightmares that had plagued her recently. Tucked in the crevice of his body, Lulu had managed to find the first night of fitful rest she'd had in weeks. He couldn't believe that she could do it after everything else that had happened last night.
Brushing his hands over his face, he leaned forward and studied himself in the mirror. His green eyes were tired, showing visible signs of an age he wouldn't reach for many years to come. So much had happened in the past year, from the abortion to Laura's return to the hostage situation. He had spent months worrying about the feisty blonde, holding vigil from afar when she couldn't stand to let him in. Now that she had, he had never been more worried about her. There was so much at stake here, most of all being Lulu's sanity.
"Hey," she whispered sleepily, kicking her barefoot against his back softly. "What's wrong? And don't even try to tell me that nothing is wrong because I can see it in your posture. Your back is all tense, and it only gets that way when you're lost in thought."
"I was just thinking about last night," he admitted. "I was thinking about how far we've come in the last year. I was thinking about how incredibly strong you are. I was thinking about how good it felt to you have you in my arms last night. I was thinking about how much I love you."
"Well, that's an awful lot of thinking for this early in the morning," she teased, sitting up. She wrapped her arms around his naked torso and rested her chin on his shoulder from behind. "But I don't think you were just thinking; I think you were doing some worrying."
He shrugged nonchalantly, hoping not to make a big deal of it. "Maybe a little, but it wasn't anything significant. Are you really okay with the family session? I know it can't be easy to take everything on all at once like this."
"If you think it's for the best, then it is. I trust you, Dillon. I know that you wouldn't put me through it if it wasn't," she assured him. "You told me that last night, and out of everything that was said, that was the one that stuck. Even though I was angry, last night reminded me how lucky I am to have so many people to love me. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to go through this alone."
"You'll never have to," he promised. He turned around in her loose embrace and tangled his fingers in her hair. "It's been too long since we were alone and didn't talk about this. I know that your family session is tomorrow and we can spend all day talking about it if you want, but I'd rather we didn't."
"I could go for a break," she agreed happily. "What do you have in mind instead? I'm kind of out of loop on fun. This whole thing has kind of inhabited my life lately."
He pointed to a few empty boxes resting against a wall in the corner. "I know that we weren't planning on doing this for a few days, but what do you say that we finish packing?"
"That's your idea of fun? Dillon, even I could come up with something better than that."
"That's not all of it, Quick Draw," he teased. "I was thinking that we could finish packing this morning, and then this afternoon, I could have the moving company move everything. Tonight, we could spend our first night alone in our home. What do you say to that?"
Jumping from the bed, she threw her arms around his neck and squealed. "Dillon, that's such a great idea! We could make dinner and take a long shower together. Carly left me a voicemail to say that Jason had the new shower put in for us. It will be perfect."
"As long as we're together, it's already perfect," he avowed before pulling his cell phone off the bureau. With Lulu still against him, he dialed the number and waited for the moving company to pick up. "I'd like to arrange for everything to be moved today." He waited a few moments while the secretary explained that it wasn't possible. "I'm Edward Quartermaine's grandson. I think it can be arranged."
"Please tell me you did not just say that," Lulu mumbled under her breath, earning a glare from Dillon. "Sorry."
He listened for a few more minutes before finally relenting. "Fine, fine, that will work," he said. "Yes, four will be fine. We're located on Harbor View Road. It's not difficult to find."
"So, the truck is coming at four?"
He shook his head. "A small moving van is coming at four to move a few things, but the majority of our things won't be able to be transported until Friday. I'm sorry you're going to have to wait. I know that you really wanted to move today."
"We can still move," she decided. "We don't need a whole bunch of stuff. We'll pack up an air mattress and a couple sleeping bags. I'll convince Alice to pack us a picnic basket with some candles. Even if we only stay there tonight, I'm determined to have a perfect first evening in our house."
Leaning to capture her mouth, he couldn't help but think how incredible she was. It didn't matter that the day was turning out to be a complete disaster, she only cared about spending time with Dillon. "I love you," he professed. "That right there personifies why I am so incredibly in love with you."
Most of the day was spent tucking the contents of their lives into boxes. Dillon's movies became mixed with Lulu's CDs, his scripts with her magazines. Clothes were discarded and organized, only a few were to remain behind. They worked together in unison, first tackling his room and then hers. She packed a small overnight bag for the house, throwing his clothes in with hers. Simple things like the fact that her red toothbrush would hang next to his blue one made her smile inside. It didn't take much to remind her of his place in her life.
As they headed back into Dillon's room to dead with the atrocity that was his closet, Lulu smiled at him genuinely. "This has been a nice day. I didn't think I'd have this much fun. I like just spending time with you. I think I take it for granted sometimes."
"Well, we're going to spend so much time together that you will definitely come to take me for granted," he replied as he started to shuffle through a box of old photographs. Most of them were of himself with Georgie. He wasn't really sure what to do with them. He hated to throw them away, but he didn't really need them anymore either.
Lulu looked over his shoulder as he scoured the stack. There was one of himself with Lucas during those first days at PCU last year. He barely recognized the kid he used to be. There were others of Georgie, Maxie and Brook Lynn. Finally, he found the one he'd been looking for. Taken at her parents' wedding, it was a snapshot of her in that amazing red dress. It was on that day, more than any before it, that he realized how incredibly beautiful she was. "I can't believe you have that," she commented.
"Are you kidding? That photograph changed my life. It captured the exact moment I knowingly fell in love with you. I'm lucky to have it. I'll be able to show it to our children someday and they'll understand exactly how it was that we fell in love."
"You want to have kids with me?"
"Even more than I want to marry you someday," he answered, kissing her on the tip of the nose. "There are a lot of pictures here. I didn't know I had kept this many."
"What are these?" she asked, flipping open a leather-bound album. The pages were filled of aged photographs of Dillon as a toddler, his sandy blonde hair even lighter than it was now. There pictures of him standing next to an European beach, posed next to the Quartermaine banister, sitting in the co-captain's chair on an airplane. Her favorite was taken at dusk. He was probably only two or three, completely unaware that he was being filmed. The photo showed him running around in a grassy field with this innocent smile on his face. She would have been in love with him even then. "Oh, Dillon."
"I know, lame right?"
"Not even a little bit," she retorted. "I love it. When we get our house all set up, we're going to have it framed."
"Whatever you want," he chuckled, tucking it into the box on top of the rest of the photographs. "We need to finish this up, the truck is going to be here any minute." Right on cue, Alice buzzed the intercom to tell them that the van was downstairs. He directed the moving me up and before they knew it, several boxes were gone from his room. Dillon didn't even take one sad look back at his bedroom. He had never been happier about anything in his entire life.
By the time the van was unloaded, they were both tired. Still, with the sleeping bag spread over the bare hardwood floor and flames in the fireplace, they weren't too tired to enjoy the blissful dinner Alice had sent with them. French cheese, grapes, baked chicken and asparagus was on the menu with expensive champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert. Once they had finished, Dillon was happy to just lay there with her in his arms.
"I'm sorry that you're not going to get that shower you wanted," he apologized, kissing the hollow of her neck affectionately. "I can't believe we don't have water yet, either. This is turning out to be a semi-disaster."
"Really?" she asked innocently. "I hadn't even noticed. I was too busy being happy."
"How are you feeling about tomorrow?"
"Are you going to be there?" she asked. He nodded in response. "Then, I don't have anything to worry about." Yawning, he burrowed his face into her hair. "Are you tired?"
"A little, it's been a long day."
"Well, I'll have to do something about that," she replied, prying herself away from his unwilling embrace. Straddling his hips, she lifted her shirt effortlessly over her head and freed her golden mane from its braid. "Is it working yet?"
"I think I need a little more convincing," he mumbled as she met his lips with a kiss. Exploring her mouth with his tongue, he felt all exhaustion melt away, only to be replaced with desire and lust. Pulling her closer to him by her belt loops, she moaned against his teeth with anticipation. "Oh, yeah, it's working. It's definitely working."
Pulling away, she allowed her hair to cascade over his face. Looking down at him, she felt something shift inside her. She felt something she had never felt before, and that emotion was complete and total trust. "Dil, I want to marry you."
"We can be in Vegas tonight."
"We'd miss my family session…"
"I could have you back before the sun comes up."
Her first instinct was to make a sarcastic comment, but she didn't. Instead, she smiled at him genuinely and leapt head first into completely uncharted waters. "Let's do it."