Without a price
Chapter 15
Later that evening, Lucky got a phone call from Nikolas. Of course, when Lucky answered the phone quickly in order to try and avoid waking up Emily, who was sleeping in the second bedroom, he never expected it to be Nikolas on the other side.
Lucky glanced at the clock and figured that it must be early morning there in Greece. Certainly too early for him, so he guessed this was a call provoked by intense guilt and self-hatred and thus difficulty sleeping. Still… "Nikolas, long time no hear," Lucky said, not sure how to accurately interpret the timing of the call. Why now when he has been gone for weeks?
"Yeah, I've been really busy." Nikolas answered, Lucky rolling his eyes. Oh, he was sure he was really busy, really busy spending time with his ex-sister-in-law, now girlfriend. It wasn't that Lucky was angry about it anymore; it was just annoying at this point to be continuously reminded of it. He just wanted to move on with his life. Like Emily said, it was just better to move on with these kinds of things and this phone conversation was not helping.
"Aren't we all," Lucky replied, feigning patience in order to wait until Nikolas said whatever he called to say. It was a long week, one that had tested that virtue too strongly and as a result, was in short supply.
"How's Emily?" Nikolas asked, still avoiding the issue he called to talk about, of course Nikolas didn't know he knew but Lucky still wondered when he would stop running from the issue. He probably did not care how Emily was, not seriously at least. It was just a reasonable subject to prolong the bad news and the gut-wrenching confession. A characteristic he apparently picked up from Elizabeth.
"The same as you last saw her," Lucky responded cryptically, a response that was justified and mysteriously vague at the same time.
"I see." Nikolas commented and proved exactly what Lucky thought-he really wasn't seriously concerned it was just a question to avoid whatever issue he called about. "I…there's something I need to tell you." Lucky blessed his luck. Nikolas was finally getting to the point of this whole conversation!
To prevent Nikolas continuing another avoidance tactic, Lucky grabbed onto the opportunity to clue Nikolas in and prove he wasn't stupid. He was and could be oblivious, yes, but he certainly wasn't dumb. "Nikolas, if you are having a hard time saying what I think you are going to say, I'll say it for you. 'I was sleeping with your wife."
"I…how did you know?" Nikolas stuttered, probably thinking that they covered well. However, if Lucky wasn't so involved with the murder case, he would have caught up on it.
"Emily actually. She noted that your and Elizabeth's behavior were off and that Elizabeth was gone and connected the notions and viola-affair discovered!" A hint of anger voiced its head into Lucky's tone but its source was more of disbelief that Nikolas thought he really was stupid. Of all the people he expected that from, he would have never guessed it would come from Nikolas
"You could never get anything past Emily, even if she didn't say it out loud," Nikolas recalled, trying to laugh with the comment and failed miserably.
"Nope," Lucky agreed, now thoroughly tempted to hang up on Nikolas now that he said what he wanted to say, but then realized that Nikolas could be the divorce messenger. "But since we are talking, do me a favor and tell Elizabeth that our divorce will be finalized within next week. It's a wonder how fast one can go if one spouse isn't present."
"You're divorcing her? She told me that she divorced you." Nikolas was obviously confused and trying to find the liar in the pair. Lucky would have laughed in Nikolas' face-figuratively anyway, if Nikolas said the liar was him.
"Pathological liars-the world is full of them." Lucky remarked cynically. "But, you know what? You can keep Elizabeth. You two deserve each other. Then again, she'll probably leave you like she left every other guy she has known and place blame on yet another made up excuse."
"She's already gone." Nikolas commented quietly, so much that Lucky could barely hear that.
"Wow, her timing has increased. First it was a year, later it was months, and now she's on weeks. That is quite the rapid change." Lucky replied, noting the increasing leaving pattern of Elizabeth. Lucky knew his comments were cruel but considering everything, he felt it was expected and deserved.
"Look, I called to apologize but you don't seem very forgiving…" Nikolas replied, "then again, I don't know if I would be either." Lucky counted his stars-Nikolas was actually considering it from his point of view.
"I could forgive you," Lucky considered, "but I'll just do this instead." He slammed the phone down and ended the call without another word. He glanced at the phone unseeingly until he heard a creaking door. He looked around the apartment and down the hall, which was where Emily was exiting from. So much for not waking up Emily, noble goal it was.
Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she sat down on a chair in the small living room. Lucky went to sofa it was near to and sat down and explained the whole conversation, actions and all, in three words. "That was Nikolas".
"That explains the cynical tone, slammed phone, and condescending words," Emily replied, nodding in understanding as she said this.
Lucky didn't realize that he was that rough but then again he was biased and truthfully he could see it happening. "I didn't mean to wake you up." He apologized, feeling bad about that. He purposely let her sleep here in order to avoid loud sounds and there he was being loud.
"You didn't. I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried." Emily told him, shaking her head in order to push away some of the sleepiness she had. It didn't work that well. It was also frustrating, one time she let herself just sleep and she couldn't. If she had the energy she would laugh at the irony.
"Why? Is something on your mind?" Lucky asked, knowing he couldn't sleep when that happened.
"It's just that…earlier today…" Emily was having visible difficulty saying what she was trying to say. Seeing this, Lucky did not press her and let her have her time. When she did say what she had to say, it was direct and simple. "Vincent's dead."
"Dead?" Lucky asked, the word not quite hitting him as it should have. Of all he thought it might be, he didn't expect that announcement. "Did someone kill him?"
"He wasn't murdered, not by a person anyway." Emily answered, pausing to think of a way to explain the situation and decided on starting with some background information. "Ever since I've known him he was a heavy smoker. It was how he dealt with life's stresses and the issues he had. Back in those days, when he was a teenager…it was how you got to belong, you know? But also back then, they didn't realize the health dangers associated with cigarettes, or at least the companies didn't want it to be known in order to keep their incomes high."
Lucky nodded, seeing where she was going. He summarized the cause in order to help her explain the situation, like he did with Nikolas but this time it wasn't for cruel purposes. Emily was still digesting the fact that Vincent died much less the cause; she hadn't gone through the stages of mourning yet. "He was pretty sick huh?"
"By the time he got up the courage to see a doctor…the cancer had already began to spread." Emily responded. "The doctor told him that there was treatment options of course that could help but Vincent didn't want them. The only thing he wanted to do was die." That seemed awful cold and insensitive to Lucky as Emily said it, and, if asked, she would probably have agreed with his observation.
"He didn't have a reason to live?" Lucky asked and Emily nodded. That was hard to believe, however. "What about you? Aren't", Lucky started but then corrected himself as he noticed the present tense, "Weren't you important to him?" Lucky asked, pushing the topic more than he should, but what could he say? He cared. "You were his last living relative and yours as well. Didn't that mean anything at all?"
"Before his mother died it did. When she was alive, he enjoyed life and actually cared about other people but when she died… his personality did a radical three sixty. The worst thing is that he knew this and while he always said he'd change… it never happened. Eventually, the whole family stopped expecting him to."
Lucky nodded again, sensing the disappointment there. All Emily wanted was one family member that wasn't completely screwed up and selfish besides her mother and she lost her mother and that opportunity.
"At that point, he ceased to become family; he became…an acquaintance that couldn't be counted on but while that was so… there was also a certain reassurance that I wasn't fully alone in the world. Yes, he did not deserve the title of uncle, but to know he at least existed kept me satisfied that I didn't loose my entire family but now…" Emily shook her head and wiped away the tears that fell before continuing, "I'm really all alone in the world."
Lucky had heard it said that if you lost your family, that was truly when you had nothing left and Emily was probably feeling that way now. "What about the Quartermaines'?" Lucky asked, knowing Emily's issues were tight there.
"I don't even want to fix that relationship. It's always the same. Monica and Alan or any of the extended family members always pull something that ticks me off, which gets fixed later, and the cycle repeats as another pulls a stunt, followed by another and another." Again, Emily shook her head. "I don't want to go through that anymore; it's just too much work and energy."
"So you gave up?" Lucky asked for verification, not sure if that was the right thing but he could understand where she came from. It was also her life-not his. "That doesn't mean you are all alone Em. You have Jason, and me, and Sam. That's at least 3 people you didn't count."
"If you put it that way, you my as well count Eleanor," Emily responded, as if she didn't believe him. Then again, maybe she considered that but just wanted to be depressed at the moment. There were times he was like that.
"What does that mean?" Lucky asked, becoming annoyed with Emily's vague statements. Yes, Emily wanted to hide behind them now and he respected that but he also wanted to help and those weren't helping him do that. He could, he supposed, just let her have her space and not have to deal with an extra difficult Emily but he didn't trust her not to do something stupid and best friends didn't abandon each other. This was just the dark side of friendship and Emily wasn't usually difficult for too long so he decided to wait it out as he usually did but with little patience, it wasn't going to be an easy task.
"Well, if Sam is a friend, wouldn't Eleanor inadvertently be considered one too?" Emily pointed out but there was more to the question than that and Lucky knew it. Whether to push it or not though was questionable.
"Yeah, I guess… but you don't like Eleanor," Lucky replied, not knowing for sure this but that is what he got from her attitude.
"I don't hate her," Emily denied the statement. "I just don't feel comfortable when she's around. The baby is hardly at fault for my personal feelings."
"No," Lucky agreed, liking the fact that Emily was not so miserable she wanted to take everyone else down with her too. It really was just a phase but…"what are these personal feelings?"
"Exactly that: personal" Emily told him as she rose from the chair and left the living room. Way too personal for Lucky to know apparently. He would have to find out another way.
Author's note: Okay, so not the best chapter but an informational one at least. Hope it was at least temporarily entertaining.