Author's Notes: There was something I was supposed to tell you. Let me see if I can recall. Hmm, this is why Beth tells you all the important stuff...OH YEAH. We have adopted a new update strategy in an effort to no longer be approximately 100 chapters ahead of our readers. Every weeknight...at 9:30 EST...there will be a new chapter posted. Part of our plot to get everyone away from the cancelled show. Good "ratings" may result in more updates...I'm just saying we are fairly easy to bribe... So, without further adieu...

Shifting in his seat, Lucky tried to find a comfortable position on the crowded flight. It had been years since he had actually flown a commercial plane: these days he tended to use the private L&B plane when he needed to fly. But Daphne had use of the plane this week for the Radio Music Awards this week and he needed to get to Vegas pronto.

Cruz's phone call had shocked the hell out of him. "Hey man, any reason why Elizabeth is taking off to Vegas with your latest protégée? Axe swears he just saw them in the airport..." He might have dismissed any information from Axe if it hadn't been for the follow up call from one very angry Marcus Taggert.

"What the hell did you do man? My girl gets a call from yours and all I hear is men are scum and I'm sitting here while they go flying off to Vegas, swearing to work it like it has never been worked before. I don't know what that means but I don't think it's good."

If he had learned nothing from the disaster in New York, it was that two angry women together was bad. Two angry women out of town was worse. He had to get to Vegas and try to talk to Elizabeth before he had not only his mother and Lois coming after him for screwing this up, but Taggert as well.

Glancing at his watch, he realized he had approximately two hours left on his flight. Two hours to divine a solution to the mess his life had become. Resting his head against the window, he prayed he could do it.

Elizabeth stood in the middle of her room, smoothing out wrinkles on her new skirt. Daphne had insisted on a shopping spree the second they landed in Vegas. She had barely dropped her bags in the room, before the younger girl drug her out onto the strip in search of the perfect "make him drool at his own stupidity outfit" as she had called it.

"I'm under 21 so I can't gamble Precious. So let me have my fun in the stores." Holding up the credit card, Daphne had smiled widely. "And since Lucky was so kind enough to help me get this credit card, I think it only fair that Sugar pay for this piece of deliciousness don't you?"

The denim skirt was far shorter than she would have normally bought, but that could be said for most of the outfits she, Robin and Courtney had picked. Only the outfits all three girls had deemed drool worthy had made the cut. Daphne's choice would fit right in.

Glancing at her watch, she realized that if everything had gone to plan, and if Cruz and Taggert knew what was good for them it had better, Lucky most likely would be arriving in under an hour. Forcing him to fly commercial had been Courtney's suggestion and Elizabeth had to admit it had been a brilliant one. It had meant inviting Daphne in on the fun, which she readily agreed. Elizabeth felt the first tremors of nerves float up in her stomach and was grateful for the other girl's presence. For the plans to fully work, Elizabeth realized that she and Robin had to be separated but she needed back up here. Someone to tell her to stand firm, keep it together and remember the goal. If Daphne wasn't with her, Elizabeth feared she may cave the second she saw Lucky. And that wouldn't work at all.

The knock on her door jarred Elizabeth from her thoughts. Glancing through the peep hole, she saw Daphne bouncing on the heels of her feet, cell phone planted firmly on her ear. Opening the door, Daphne blew her way into the room, a flurry of hands and arms. "Ok Sweetie. Thank you. I miss you. Bye Sugar."

With a firm click of the cell phone, Daphne whirled around to face Elizabeth. "My Sugar said your Sugar is on his way. According to the computer, he should arrive soon."

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Elizabeth managed a smile. "Then I guess we better get ready for game time."

"Come on Precious. We both know where he's going to look first. We better get ready."

He felt like a stalker. The second he had landed, Lucky had made a beeline for the L&B Artist Suite at the New York New York Casino on the Strip. Some people rolled their eyes when the heard where their Artists Suite was located but it had been Lois's suggestion. And no one went against Lois. Almost as soon as he had found a room and checked his bags with the bellman, he had spotted both of them walking through the lobby. He knew Daphne was there as well, but all he could see was Elizabeth and what she was wearing. That denim skirt was shorter than anything he could recall seeing her wear. And she knew he had a weakness for her in a simple tank top. He was half expecting her to trip on her own feet, the heels of those sandals were so high. As he trailed behind the pair, there was no way Lucky missed the appreciative glances other men were throwing his girlfriend's way. Or the smiles she was returning.

The girls ducked into the Bellagio and Lucky quickly moved to keep them insight. He could approach them here, he rationalized. They would expect him to try in the casino they were all staying in. He didn't for one second think they wouldn't realize he would use the same casino. As they moved down one of the many corridors of stores, he began to formulate his approach in his mind. He needed suave. He needed confident. He needed Patrick, minus his cousin's ego.

Seeing them stop in front of a perfume shop, Lucky sensed this was his chance. He paused to run his hands through his hair and straighten out an wrinkles the flight may have caused. This required perfection. If this was to work, he needed everything to go perfectly. He was bumped from behind and turned to see a man, about his height, possibly a little older with curly blonde hair, backing up.

"Whoa. Sorry. Wasn't watching where I was going." The other man offered his hand out in apology.

"No harm." Lucky smiled good naturedly and shook the offered hand. He turned long enough to check his appearance in a nearby shop window. Satisfied that what he saw was as good as he was going to get, he turned determined to make his move. This is when he saw it.

Elizabeth jumping up to hug the very man who had just bumped into him.

"Precious, I'm telling you if you could have seen his face..." Daphne collapsed into giggles. "I never thought I would ever see him look so completely lost as to what to do. If I only had a camera. Sugar is never going to believe me when I tell him."

Elizabeth smiled as she adjusted the skirt of her new dress. The emerald green number hugged her every curve. The straps were so tiny they really shouldn't have been considered straps at all. It stopped just at the mid-thigh and the black stilettos made her normally petite frame look supermodel tall. The whole outfit made her feel sexy and ready to go out and break some hearts. Spinning around, she threw her arms out wide. "So how do I look? Award pre-show party ready?"

"Precious, you are going to melt him to the floor."

She was trying to kill him, Lucky decided. She was definitely trying to kill him.

It hadn't been that hard to realize that Daphne would take Elizabeth along with her to the award pre-party. And he had been invited to this shindig after all. But what he hadn't realized was just how gorgeous she was going to look tonight. One of these days, if he was truly lucky, he would learn to not underestimate her.

They had been dancing all night, which amazed him considering the height of Elizabeth's heels. Maybe she really wasn't clumsy as she had always claimed. To his relief they had been turning down attention from most of the males, although a few were determined to hang on. Lucky made a mental note of their descriptions to pass on to Taggert. It was important for the other man to know. He leaned against the bar, trying to figure out what to do, when Elizabeth made the decision for him.

He couldn't tell if she had spotted him or not. Probably not since it was a wall to wall sea of people. But she was moving directly towards the bar and directly towards him.

When she arrived at the bar, she rested her elbows on the counter. In what he would never be able to tell was real surprised or faked, she spoke the first words she had said to him in exactly five days. "Well what a surprise to see you here." She drawled.

"Elizabeth, I could say the same thing about you."

"There's a lot of things you could say, but should you say them? That's a different question."

Tentatively, he placed a hand on her arm, equal parts surprised and relieved when she didn't immediately jerk away from his touch. That had to be a sign of progress. "Can we go somewhere and talk about this?"

Elizabeth forced herself to take a deep breath and to focus. She had to play the game and not focus on the touch of his skin on hers. Remember the end goal, she reminded herself. Remember the end goal. "No I don't think we can."

He hadn't really expected her to say yes but he had to try. "Can we meet later and talk?"

"No. I have plans."

"Daphne won't mind. I'll talk with her."

"My plans aren't with Daphne."

Not with Daphne? What was she talking about? "You came here with Daphne. Why wouldn't your plans be with Daphne?"

"Because I'm meeting up with someone else. Someone I can trust."

He tried to stop her but in the end he could do nothing but watch her as she walked away.

It amazed him to no end that in a city the size of Vegas, he saw Elizabeth everywhere he went. He saw her in the lobby. In the shops. At the events leading up to the awards. Everywhere he went, there she was. Each time looking more beautiful than the last. It was driving him absolutely crazy.

He'd seen her with Daphne. He'd seen her alone. He'd seen her with that other guy a few times, holding his hand and laughing like there was no tomorrow. Sometimes she would talk to him in short brief sentences, other times she outright ignored him. And sometimes he wasn't sure if she even knew he was there at all.

A few times he had caught her looking at him and glancing away quickly. Those brief moments gave him hope. Somewhere there was a crack in her foundation. He was going to work at that crack until the wall he admitted he put up came tumbling down. And he was starting to get an idea of how to at least attempt it.

Elizabeth opened the door to her room, noticing the small envelope that had been pushed under the door. Picking it up she smiled as she noticed Lucky's handwriting.

"Please meet me tomorrow at 6pm. Room 1526."

She tapped the note against her chest, smiling. "Right on time."

Pausing to adjust her dress, Elizabeth raised her hand to knock on the door to room 1526. Daphne had spent the past hour curling and pinning her hair. The simple black dress wasn't the skimpiest thing she had packed but the sexiness of the dress was in its simplicity. As she waited for Lucky to answer the door, she rubbed the front of her gold high heels against the back of her leg.

"You came." Lucky opened the door far enough for her to brush past him. He had cleaned up nicely, she determined, wearing a simple white shirt with black trousers.

Turning to meet his gaze, she cocked her eyebrow at him. "Only for a minute. I do have a date tonight." Ok so it was with Daphne, room service and a marathon of Sex and The City they discovered but he didn't need to know that.

It surprised her exactly none that Lucky had a suite. She figured the managers would have bent over backwards to keep a key client happy. And she knew he was planning something big to beg for forgiveness but as always, he had surprised her.

He must have bought out every candle store in the city. They were everywhere she looked. The shades were drawn against the desert sun so the flickering lights were all the illumination she had. The carpeted floor was covered in rose petals. Pink, white, and red all made patterns on the floor. Where there weren't candles, he had covered the surface in flowers. Arrangements that she was sure would be beautiful once she could identify all the shades in better light. A table was set up with two elaborate carts full of food. Moving closer to inspect, she realized every last item was one of her favorite foods. Oh he was good.

She turned to make some comment but had to bite her lip when she noticed him holding the Teddy bear that was as tall as he was. When he ducked his head over the stuffed animal's shoulder, the look on his face was so pathetic she almost caved right then and there. But she quickly pulled herself together. There would be no caving until he made the speech.

Lucky took her silence as a good sign. It had to be progress if she wasn't making a joke or running for the exit like she had before. Moving slowly, keeping the bear between them as a shield should she decide to throw something, he started to approach her.

"I know I screwed up."

"You really need to work on this understatement thing."

"I was an ass. I was a thoughtless, insensitive, crude ass."

"If you are waiting for me to disagree, I'm not going to."

"There is no excuse for what I did and I do know better. You gave me your trust and I abused it in favor of stupid guy talk with my buddies. And even though you probably don't believe it you are worth more than some cheap locker room conversations."

Elizabeth forced herself to look at her feet to hide the expression on her face. If she looked at him, he'd never finish this and he had to. She needed to hear all of it before she would touch him again. It was the one rule that she was going to follow when it came to him.

"I'm sorry. If it takes the rest of whatever time we have together to prove it to you I'll do it. I'll repeat this speech everyday if you need me to. I don't care. If you ask I'll do it. I think what we have is pretty special here and I don't want to lose it."

He moved the bear to his side and tried to catch her eye. "And if you've already decided that you'd be better off, then know this will be one of the biggest regrets of my life. But if you think you'd be happier with someone new..."

She couldn't help herself. The snort of laughter escaped. Lucky was completely confused by her reaction. He had prepared for yelling. He had prepared for throwing. Even tears. But laughter? "I'm sorry but I'm not seeing what's so funny here."

Elizabeth took a deep breath to try to calm down but she continued to giggle. "I'm sorry but do you think the someone else is the guy you've been seeing me with this whole trip?"

Seeing him nodded, her shoulders shook harder with laughter. "I just find it hilarious that you think I'd move on from you with...with...my own brother."

His mouth dropped opened and Lucky dropped the bear as Elizabeth shook with laughter. Her brother? "Your brother?"

"Yup. He really wants to meet you by the way."

"So you knew I was there the entire time."

"Yup."

"The entire time?"

"I've known your whereabouts from the minute Cruz and Taggert called you." She continued to laugh as his eyes widened with the implications of what she just revealed. "Yeah. Gotcha." She laughed.

"So this whole thing..."

"Total setup."

Lucky moved closer to her, partly impressed by her ability to con him, party outraged at himself for not figuring this out on his own. Leaning his hand on one of the food covered trays, he cocked his head to the left. "I suppose you think you are clever."

"Completely. You'll learn not to underestimate me."

Closing his fist around a meatball, he smiled. "Absolutely."

And with that he let the meatball fly, landing splat on the neckline of her dress. Elizabeth's eyes widened for a split second before she attacked back with a flying spoonful of whipped cream. It wasn't long before an all out food fight was being raged. Sauces, pasta, wine, ice cream, nothing was sacred. The work of a five star chef was becoming a mangled sticky mass embedded on their clothes, the furniture and the carpet. Elizabeth did not want to be the cleaning crew who had to clean this room.

Laughing they chased each other around the room, climbing over tables, jumping on the couch, knocking over chairs. Lucky caught her mid leap by her waist, pulling her close to him. They were covered in food on every visible body surface including their hair. He pushed back a particularly messy lock behind her ear. "You are beautiful."

She shot him an incredulous look. "You are demented."

"Do you forgive me?"

"Are you going to do this again?"

"I promise. Never again. I don't think I could take another setup like this."

"Good. Then I guess I'll forgive you but you are on probation there buddy." She tucked away Robin's definition of probation. That may come in handy later.

"If it's possible, I think you are even more beautiful now."

"I look like the bottom of a kitchen drain."

Lucky winked at her and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "Then why don't we go clean up?"