Elizabeth hummed under her breath as she cleaned up the last of the tables in her classroom. It had been a good day. No bathroom emergencies. No temper tantrums. All good signs this early in the school year. She prayed the trend would last and not be a temporary illusion. A few more things to straighten and she could go home.

Well go home after she tracked down Robin. Ever since the anniversary party, Robin had been scarce. She wasn't returning phone calls. She seemed to be asleep whenever Elizabeth called her at the loft. Something was wrong and Elizabeth was determined to find out.

A low whistle reached her ear from behind her. "I swear if more teachers looked like you while I was in school, I'd have been a straight A student."

Laughing as she turned to face Lucky, she couldn't help but feel a flutter of nerves. Elizabeth had promised not to say anything to Lucky until Cruz did about his relationship with Bobbie. It wasn't that she was going to be lying to him per say, more like keeping him in the dark. Cruz had compared it to keeping quiet about Christmas presents. Meeting his green eyes, Elizabeth realized for the first time just how hard keeping quiet about this was going to be.

"What are you doing here? Your mother picked Cameron up today."

Putting his arms around her waist, Lucky pulled her close to him, kissing the tip of her nose briefly. Today was the first time he had seen her since the party and her nerves attack. "I know that. There is more than one person in this school I like to visit with." He pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, trailing his fingers down the column of her throat.

"Really? You have a thing going with Mrs. Osencraft?" Elizabeth managed to tease, referring to the director of the preschool, a woman her grandmother's age with steel gray hair, an endless supply of sensible navy blue suits and brown orthopedic shoes.

"You figured out my dirty secret. I find blue suits and brown shoes the height of sexiness."

Elizabeth giggled. "I'll have to remember that."

"Please do." Lucky closed the small gap between them and pressed his lips against hers. Elizabeth responded immediately, having missed him in the three days it had been since she had last experienced this. Quickly their mouths began to match movement for movement and before she could forget where exactly she was, she felt his tongue tracing her lips, seeking entrance.

She pushed back from him slightly. "This is against the rules here pal." She breathed.

Lucky managed to pull her back for a quick kiss before she pulled away again, still remaining firmly in arm's length. He grinned. She may be protesting but if she really wanted him to stop, she'd have pulled away from him completely and walked across the room, not remained firmly in his arms. "I thought the rules were under revision," he protested, pulling her closer yet again.

Placing her hand on his chest to stop herself from getting too close, Elizabeth tried again. "Your father changed that rule, not us."

"Still the rule was changed." Lucky pointed out grinning. This was fun, he decided. He was going to suggest rule changes more often.

He had chosen that exact moment to give her the puppy dog eyes. Damn him. Elizabeth could feel her resolve crumbling. It was ridiculous she was this addicted to kissing him after such a short time. She should have more willpower than this. Attempting one last reason, she protested weakly as he succeeded in pulling her within a breath of him. "Lucky, I work here. Someone could walk in."

"I only saw your car in the parking lot. We're alone I promise." His hands moved slowly up and down her sides. "I missed you." He whispered in her ear.

It was the whispering that did it. She didn't want to admit it but Elizabeth was fairly sure he could have whispered something about coupons for an oil change and she would have succumbed just as easily. Making a mental note to learn to resist him whispering all together, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his neck, closing the miniscule gap between them. His hands took on a life of their own, moving up her sides, into her hair and back down her sides in rapid motion. As soon as she registered where one hand was, it moved. This time when his tongue sought hers, she eagerly allowed the two to meet. Lucky's fingers moved to pull her pink button down out of the waist of her black jeans.

His fingers were mere millimeters from finishing their job when a cough reached both their ears. A loud "Ahem" was followed by the unmistakable sound of rubber soles tapping on a linoleum floor. Pulling apart, Elizabeth felt herself blush when she met the eyes of one very unhappy Mrs. Osencraft.

"Mrs. Osencraft. What a surprise." She managed to squeak out, shooting Lucky a dirty look in the process.

"Ms. Webber. Mr. Spencer." The older woman nodded crisply in their direction. "Ms. Webber may I speak with you privately in my office?" The tone made it clear to Elizabeth she was not being given an actual choice. This was a command performance.

"Of course." As the director turned and started to walk towards her office, Elizabeth whirled around to face Lucky. "I thought you said no one else was here." She muttered.

"I only saw your car in the front." He protested.

Elizabeth groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. "I park in the back. She parks in the front and drives a similar car to mine."

Lucky groaned as well. He had thought something had been off when he spotted her car. Now that he really thought about it, the car had been missing her bumper stickers. He had been so eager to see her, he had completely missed that fact. "I'm an idiot."

"No. In this case you're just oblivious." From the hallway Elizabeth could hear the rubber soles tapping impatiently on the ground. She was five seconds away from a second summons, which would make this bad situation even worse. "I have to go deal with this now. Wait for me?"

"How long before I send a search party?"

"An hour. Tops."

Lucky nodded and saluted. "Got it Serge. Now go. Face the enemy."

Pacing around the classroom, Lucky idly tossed a small ball against the wall. He realized this was going to turn out one of two ways. Either Elizabeth was going to see this was not his fault or she was going to be royally pissed off. In all fairness it hadn't been his plan to start a make out session in the middle of her classroom. He had planned on convincing her to join him for dinner tonight. But when he saw her, she was impossible to ignore or resist. He was smart enough to realize trying to convince her it was really all her fault was not going be a good plan.

He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a familiar set of numbers. Patrick would surely have some ideas on how to go here. If he could get in touch with his cousin. Lucky had thought Patrick was in a bad mood before the party, now he was impossible. He was short tempered, belligerent and had started this bad habit of walking the other way when he spotted Lucky or Cruz coming near him. But that was only when he actually saw Patrick. His cousin had also recently developed an increasingly annoying habit of not returning anyone's phone calls.

The phone rang. And rang some more. It was going to voicemail again, he resigned himself, trying not to groan. It was going to voicemail again. As if to taunt him, Patrick's outgoing message began to play in his ear.

"You've reached Patrick Drake. Only creative messages will be returned."

"Call me back or I'm getting Cruz to publish your baby pics." Lucky threatened, hanging up his phone with a slam.

"What did that phone do to you?" Elizabeth asked, leaning against the door frame.

Shrugging Lucky tossed the offending piece of technology over his shoulder, landing on one of the many tables with a clink, which was almost as satisfying as slamming the phone in Patrick's ear would have been. "Nothing that won't be fixed in person. " Walking across the room to meet her, he stopped just short of pulling her into his arms. "How bad was it?"

Biting back a small smile, Elizabeth tried to be as serious as possible. "Robin's rules of probation for the foreseeable future."

The look on his face was priceless. She had a flash of him as a young boy being told the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and Santa weren't real in one fell swoop. Lucky recovered well but still she had seen it. It was quickly replaced by indignation and self-preservation.

"I didn't know she drove the same car as you." He protested.

The urge to laugh was great but she resisted it. This was all his fault at any rate. He deserved to squirm for just a minute. Ok maybe she should have resisted more but he was wearing that electric blue shirt which he had to know was her weakness. Or maybe she should just work on her self control some more, which she never had a problem before he ran into her life. So it really was all his fault. She'd let him twist in the wind for just a minute at least. "You missed my, how do describe them? My 'dead giveaway, one way ticket to recognition in this town'' bumper stickers? You missed them?"

He could almost swear she was mad at him, if it wasn't for one small thing. Oh, Lucky acknowledged that Elizabeth certainly looked angry. Her arms were crossed in front of her waist and she was holding herself tightly together. Her tone was biting. But then he looked her directly in her eyes and he saw it. Her blue eyes were dancing the way they did when she was laughing. She was teasing him. Lucky advanced closer to her.

"I was just distracted about how much I've missed you." He gave his most exaggerated pout.

Moving her hand to her mouth, Elizabeth tried to conceal her laugh but the closer he moved to her, the harder it became to hide. When his hands spanned her waist, she gave up the pretense and buried her face in his shoulder, laughing hysterically. "Oh that wasn't one of the most embarrassing moments of my adult life at all." She managed to get out sarcastically.

Lucky began to rub his hands up and down her back. "Lulu interrupted my first meeting with a potential artist to complain about Cameron's , and I'm quoting here, 'completely out of control, runny river of diarrhea' on speaker phone."

Elizabeth pulled back just enough to raise one eyebrow at him. "We are so not playing ''I can top your humiliation' during my pity party here."

Affecting a small salute, Lucky grinned an apology towards her. "Aye, aye captain. One career crisis story at a time." He traced the plains of her cheek with his finger. "Seriously, how bad was it?"

"Having my professionalism questioned, a discussion on when exactly it was I met you and we started dating and even some discussion on whether I was showing favoritism towards Cameron because of our relationship? On a scale of one to ten it was a nine." she sighed.

"What stopped it from being a ten?" He had to admit he was curious. It would have been a ten easy in his book, but Elizabeth only gave it a nine?

"One, she eventually said because of my grandmother she knew I this was more than likely a laps in judgment on my part. And two," Elizabeth paused to laugh. "And two, she finally realized there was no way I would have shown favoritism to Cameron since you didn't attend many functions last year."

"Harsh." Lucky silently vowed to make one Ms. Osencraft pay for such remarks. While it may have been strictly true, she still didn't have any right to say it.

"Hey, you've been doing much better this year. I hear you even signed up to be a teacher's aid this year. Trust me, that's something I want pictures of."

"Because my mother has you convinced it is just too adorable for words?" he guessed.

"No. Patrick mentioned he needed them for blackmail."

Patrick. The mere mention of his cousin's name caused Lucky to scowl. If he had thought Patrick was a beast before the anniversary party, now he was a freaking ghost. The past three days had been nothing but missed phone calls and cryptic messages. Lucky got the distinct impression Patrick was avoiding him but for the life of him, he couldn't not figure out why. It wasn't like they were sixteen again and Lucky had accidentally nicked Patrick's new car. Or the time in college when there was that girl at the party. This time Lucky was certain he hadn't done anything except try to figure out what caused the return of the Cold War between Patrick and Robin. He wasn't in the wrong here.

"Well to get them you would have to find him first." He muttered. "Let me know how that goes."

"What are you talking about?"

"The man's been a ghost since Lucas and Dillon's party. He ignores my calls and the few times I do talk to him I think I need a code breaker next to me to understand him." Lucky was frustrated. There was no other way to put it. He could put up with Patrick's moods but he need to know the damn cause of them.

"Well Robin's been laying low since the party too. Maybe it's related?"

"I'm sure it is but he was a pain in the rear before then too. Now that I think about he's been speaking in code before whatever trouble they're in. I've been feeling like I need Cliff Notes around him for weeks now."

"It's probably just the test results. When he gets them back, he'll be fine." It was the only explanation that made sense to Elizabeth.

Lucky furrowed his brow in confusion. "Test results? What test results?"

"His second round of tests. He had them done at General Hospital not that long ago."

"Second round of tests for what?" It was bad enough he needed a code book to understand his cousin these days but now his girlfriend as well? This was too much. Someone was going to have to start talking some English to him and soon. Or else he was going to end up in Shadybrook, just like his sister always joked about.

Too late, Elizabeth realized her error. She knew Patrick hadn't told Robin about his testing but she was sure by now at least he would have at least shared his HIV exposure with Lucky or Cruz at least. Obviously judging by the utter confusion and frustration on Lucky's face he hadn't. Good job Liz, she congratulated herself. Way to put your foot in this one. "He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?" Lucky noticed Elizabeth looking away hurriedly, and moved to tuck one finger under her chin. Gently he pushed her face up, forcing her to look in his eyes. If she knew the answers, then damn it she needed to tell him. "Elizabeth, what didn't Patrick tell me?"

"That he was exposed to HIV."