Disclaimer: I don't own General Hospital, but oh how different it would be if I did.
Warning: There is not a lot of Johnny and Lulu in this…meaning like zip. I'm sorry about that. Still give it a chance. I think you'll find Vanessa and Ric to be just as interesting of a couple.
Vanessa was in the middle of chopping celery, onions, and carrots for Thanksgiving dressing when her guard Bruno walks in the kitchen. She instantly recognizes the familiar cream envelope he was holding. She grins, wipes her hands on her apron, and then takes it from him. "Thanks Bruno. Will you check and make sure that Mikey and Ari are still doing their homework?"
"Sure thing V. Do you want me to come back and help you with the dressing afterwards?"
"Nah I've got it. You sit down and watch some television or something. Take a break. You do too much Bru." Vanessa didn't know what she would do if it weren't for Bruno. He picked up the kids from school. He played catch with Mikey. Hell sometimes he even helped them double check their homework. Suffice to say he did much more for her and her children than any other guard on the Barony payroll would. Then again it helps that Bruno had been Michael's best friend. Before Michael died he'd been a cleaner who was moving up in the ranks. After Michael died he'd traded in his sniper rifle for a black Volvo sedan and hand sanitizer.
Bruno smiles and nods before replying, "Okay but let me know if you change your mind." He hates when she's stubborn and won't let him help.
Once he's gone she opens the envelope as quickly as possible and smiles when she recognizes his attempt at neat scrawl.
Vanessa, I miss you tremendously and have so much that I haven't been able to tell you. Step one to rectifying this problem is baklava is best enjoyed by the ocean. You know what do. Hope all is well with Mikey and Ari. Lots of love, Johnny
As soon as she's done reading she sighs and knows what she needs to do. She needs to go to him. She walks into the den and finds Bruno sitting on the couch watching Pardon the Interruption. "I need your help packing the kids bags. We're going on a little trip."
Bruno looks at her quizzically, but follows her upstairs all the same. "Does this have to do with the letter?" He takes her lack of a response to mean yes. "Where are you going?"
"I can't tell you that. Even if I wanted to tell you I really couldn't. All I can tell you is that the children and I will be somewhere safe and we'll be back as soon as we can." Vanessa explains as she quickly packs Ari's things.
"What trouble has Johnny gotten himself into this time?" Bruno knows all too well Johnny's tendency to get himself into trouble. He also knows that Vanessa always rushes to rescue when she gets word.
Vanessa sighs. She wishes Bruno didn't know her so well. "I'm not sure, but he needs me so I'm going to be there for him. Plus the kids deserve a break for a while. They haven't had one in ages and they'll be out for Thanksgiving after tomorrow so it all works out so perfectly."
Bruno's brows crinkle. "I don't know if this is such a good idea V. I mean with everything going on with the families. How can you be certain that Mikey will be safe?"
"I can't be certain but then again I can't truly be certain that he's here either." She zips up the bag and looks at him. She runs a shaky hand through her light brown hair and exhales noisily. It's time like these that she truly feels her age. "I know your worried Bruno. I don't blame you, but we both know that you can't talk me out of this. My minds made up. And truthfully I need to get out of Boston. I love the Barony's but we both know that they aren't my family. I need to see my family. I want the kids to see their Uncle. It's not fair that they only get to see him every blue moon. So I'm going. We'll be leaving in a few hours. You'll make sure Cecile gets the dressing won't you?"
Bruno hesitates before agreeing to finish the dressing for her. "It's time like these that make me wish you were a little more run of the mill and a little less pigheaded."
"I prefer the term brilliantly willful."
Ric was sitting on the back porch nursing a scotch on the rocks with his eyes closed deep in thought when he hears the familiar sound of a speedboat pulling up to the dock. He squints in an attempt to see into the darkness, but finds it to be nearly impossible to make anything out. He closes his eyes again and zones out figuring that it's nothing more than someone delivering groceries.
"Could you carry her for me? She's tuckered out from the long trip and I just don't have the heart to wake her." Vanessa instructs one of the men standing at the gate once she's off the speedboat. Ari had lasted just long enough to get onto the speedboat on her own, but had been lulled to sleep during the ride.
Joey nods and takes the young girl from her. He can't remember the last the house was this full. He's worked for the family for over twenty years. He can still remember the first time Maria brought Johnny here. "Sure thing Ms. Z. How was your trip?"
"Come on Mikey, grab my hand." Vanessa wishes she was strong enough to carry him, but at nearly nine years old he was just too big at this point. Hell at seven Ari was already too big for her and she was at least twenty pounds thinner. "It was good. Shorter than it used to be, but still long enough to leave you feeling a little out of sync."
"Well Johnny will be very pleased to see you as will Mr. Lansing."
She scoffs in response. "Trevor has never in his entire life been pleased to see me. We both know I was a royal pain in his ass."
Joey frowns. "Well yes that's true, but I was actually talking about Ric Lansing not Trevor. In fact well I'll let your brother tell you about Trevor."
"Ric's here?" She's too stunned to move.
"Come on Mom I'm tired." Mikey replies as he yawns and tugs on her arm.
She mumbles an apology to her son and starts walking again, but can't believe that she's about to be face to face with Ric again. It's been at least ten years since the last time she'd seen him. It had been her wedding reception.
"You make a beautiful bride." He tells her as he tries to hide the fact that the smile plastered to his face is a sad one. He wants to be genuinely happy for her. He wants to mean it when he wishes her and Michael all the luck in the world. He wants to feel like he's making the right decision by pushing her into the arms of another man.
She looks down at the gown she's wearing. She'd always dreamed of getting married in Maria's but when the time came she just couldn't allow herself to wear a dress that beautiful in a wedding she was so emotionally against. Instead she'd bought a beautiful Vera Wang gown that everyone said made her look like an angel. "Thank you. You don't look too shabby yourself." She's mystified as to how exactly they both can believe they are really okay.
"Where are you going for your honeymoon?" He asks wondering if they are going to go to any of the places they had named when they used to plan their future together.
"Uh we're doing a cruise actually so the Caribbean I guess." She gives him a look that says I wouldn't dream of going to any of those places with anyone but you. Suddenly an arm is snaking around her waist and she knows it's him. She smiles up at him. She feels guilty because she can feel the happiness radiating from him. His eyes shine like a man who just found out the secret to happiness. "Hey."
"Congratulations Michael." Ric musters lamely. He can't believe that after practicing something meaningful that's all he can come up with in the moment. Then again what he really wanted to say is how does it feel to know the only way you could get a woman to be with you is to dangle protecting her family over her head.
"Thanks Ric. Did you get anything to eat?"
"Uh no, but that's okay because I just wanted to congratulate the two of you and tell Johnny goodbye. I actually need to be going. I've got to study for the bar."
"When is it?" She can't believe she's been so wrapped up in herself that she forgot about the bar. Before all of this happened she'd spent days helping him make flash cards.
"Tuesday at 9:00 in the morning so it's crunch time."
"Well good luck man. We won't hold you up anymore. I think I saw Johnny sharing a piece of cake with Luisa in the corner by the band."
Ric looks over to where Michael had pointed and sees that Michael was in fact right. Johnny is sitting at the table with Luisa flirting up a storm. He'd just suddenly started gaining interest in the opposite sex. Vanessa found it to horrifying. "Well have fun on your honeymoon you two and I'll probably see you again in the near future. It won't be long until the next wedding. It seems as though everyone is getting married these days." He's caught off guard when she softly kisses him on the cheek. He knows it's normal for brides to do this. It's just a form of thanking him for coming and bringing a gift, but that message clearly doesn't reach his heart. It speeds up as though he'd just ingested a caffeine pill. He smiles squeezes her hand and then makes his leave.
Johnny is serving up one of the lines Ric taught him when Ric suddenly is kneeling beside him. He leans over and allows the older man to whisper congratulations on Luisa and tell him that he was going away for a while. He's so consumed with his interest in Luisa that he doesn't notice the defeated look in Ric's eye or the way his voice broke when he said he was going away for awhile. Instead he just nodded and told Ric goodbye.
She self consciously runs a hand through her hair wondering how she looks. She's wearing a comfortable but not very flattering Adidas tracksuit. She can't help but wonder how he must look. Ten years is a long time. She's attempting to picture what he must look like when she walks into the house. She's surprised to find Johnny waiting for her in the foyer with a very attractive petite blonde. Before she can say anything Mikey suddenly seems to wake up and rush towards his Uncle.
Mikey picks up the young boy as if it's nothing and kisses him softly on the forehead. "Mikey, how've you been? You been treating your mother the way she deserves?"
"Yeah I've been trying to be a grown up just like you told me. Can we go fishing tomorrow?"
"We'll see. You go ahead and go to bed though. We'll have plenty of time to spend together in the morning when you wake up." Johnny assures his nephew who is the spitting image of himself when he was that age.
Mikey nods and makes his way upstairs. It seems he has remembered just how tired he was when they first arrived.
Johnny kisses his niece on the forehead and wishes her a goodnight before motioning for Joey to take her upstairs and put her in bed. Once it's just the three of them he finally hugs his sister. "I see you got my message."
"That I did, but it was missing one pretty important detail."
He nods and smiles before motioning for Lulu to come stand beside him. "Yeah well it was part of the surprise. Vanessa I'd like you to meet Lulu, Lulu Spencer. She's a very good friend of mine from Port Charles. She's going to be staying with us for a little while. Still all of that can be cleared up in the morning."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Lulu." Vanessa doesn't believe for one minute that Lulu is just a friend. You don't bring friends here. "Still I was referring more to the fact that-" She stops midsentence when he walks into the room. He looks just as handsome as he did when they were kids. In fact only his eyes gave away just how much older he really was. She envied his ability to stay young.
"That what?" Johnny asks confused as to why she would stop midsentence. His question is answered though when he hears Ric's voice.
"Vanessa?" His voice is barely above a whisper. And then as if out of a movie he faints.
Thanks so much for reading. I really hope you liked this update even though was no Johnny and Lulu in it except for a blip near the end. I'm sorry about that. I know that you all probably wanted more than that but I needed to further the story. Plus I have a lot of fun writing Vanessa and Ric scenes. I'm sorry it took so long to update. I've started this a million times, but it just wouldn't work. Please feel free to ask questions and make requests. The next chapter should have much more Johnny and Lulu interaction. I'll update as soon as possible. – KRiSTiNE