Lulu walked into the room she had been renting above Kelly's and collapsed on the couch, smiling when she realized there were blankets and pillows already there from the previous night. It was a good day when she made it to her actual bed, but lately it just hadn't happened. She was lucky to make it up the stairs and remember to lock the door behind her. This wasn't at all what she had thought living on her own would be like.
Her brother and cousins had always made it sound so glamorous, but she was just now starting to notice that maybe her parents knew what they were talking about. Before dropping her into Lucky's care, they had tried to explain the kind of responsibilities she would take on; it was one of the reasons they hadn't goaded her to leave when she graduated high school. Life was expensive, she had learned, and maybe she had compromised herself a bit to make ends meet.
Business was booming though, she thought to herself. The students in her class, and the strangers that approached her, were the most sleep-deprived, stressed-out individuals she had ever met. Granted, this first semester was kicking her butt, but she couldn't imagine being as worried about a term paper as they all seemed to be. She had read ahead in the syllabus and compiled all six of her papers so that she at least had an outline ready. This had freed up her time and the other students seemed to realize it; people paid big bucks for term papers and, at least if they went through her they'd never be found out. The same couldn't be said for buying a paper on-line.
The last time she had counted, she was currently working with twenty students which meant she was responsible for one hundred and twenty papers not including her own. They paid a hundred dollars a paper and it's not like the papers ever took her more than an hour to complete. This new idea had kept away from her domineering parents and pitying cousins. It wasn't easy being the youngest of the original set of the first cousins; it seemed her work was never done. They were all so successful in their careers while she was paying an amazing amount of money to even find out what she wanted to spend her life doing.
Her eyes half open, something ran across her vision and she sat up quickly in surprise. Her shoes were across the room as was the phone. Was it likely that it had been a mouse or worse, a rat? "You're tired." She told herself, lying back down. At the sound of scurrying feet, she hopped up onto the couch cushions and peeked into the kitchen. While most of her peers lived in one-bedroom, one-bath apartments, her entire living space was stuffed into one room. Five feet from the living room was the kitchen; five feet in the opposite direction was the bedroom. The bathroom was in-between them. If there was a rodent in this place, it didn't have a lot of places to hide.
Leaning over the couch now, her eyes darted from left to right. Her fingernails gripped the back of the couch and she considered hopping over it to frighten the animal. Maybe it would have a heart attack and then she wouldn't have to catch it or kill it. A dead mouse was not something she wanted to deal with; this was why she should have snuck up a cat. Wait hadn't the Murdock's had a cat that chased mice? She could still remember Shelby telling her about how it would kill mice all week long and then wait until the end of the week, usually right before church, to show them off like trophies. There had to be an easier solution.
"I'm going to close my eyes," she told the suspected mouse, "And you're going to have the perfect opportunity to crawl back into the hole you crawled out of." If she had any kind of courage, she would run and open the door, giving it a better chance to escape, but there was a small chance that she would end up stepping on it. Please be gone, she prayed. Please just be gone. Her body was crouched in a taut, uncomfortable position. If the situation called for it, she could spring forward and catch it by surprise.
Maxie abandoned her dishrag when she heard a shrill scream cut through the familiar atmosphere of the tiny diner she had worked in since she was seventeen years old. It was just supposed to be a temporary thing, not take up five years of her life, but was still waiting on her ship to come in and, with her obvious talent in designing clothing, it was bound to happen.
She took the stairs three at a time, curious and a little excited. The restaurant had been quiet up until this point. She had almost fallen asleep during the beginning of the afternoon slump. Thankfully, customers had started to pack in about thirty minutes ago. There were enough waitresses on duty today for her to go upstairs and see what was going on. Mike was in his office, on the phone, dealing with business affairs. Maxie had thought about asking him to explain it all to her a few months back, but she had a feeling it was creditors. Why else would he look so defeated when he finished a call and came out to greet customers?
Lulu had managed to climb even higher onto the couch so that now she was balancing her body on one of the arms. She almost fell when the door sprung open without warning and crashed against the back of the door. She hadn't meant to scream, but the little creature had climbed across her new brown sandal just as she was pulling the other one on, putting him mere centimeters from her fingertips.
Squinting when her brain registered who had come to check on her, she bit the inside of her cheek. As if Maxie Jones could help her, she mused morosely. The last time they had gone camping together, the last time they had been friends—Maxie, 12 and Lulu, 8—it had been a disastrous affair. The Scorpios and the Spencers had rented a cabin for the weekend with two bedrooms which meant the children had to sleep in the living room area with sleeping bags and pillows. At first, it had seemed like the night was going to be fun that is until Georgie had screamed that something was in the sleeping bag with her. They jumped out of their collective sleeping bags and put three books at the opening of Georgie's to trap it inside. Quietly, barely breathing, they had watched in horror as it fought its way through the soft material of the sleeping bag. Each of them called for their parents, none of them remembering that all four adults had gone to a party at the end of the road and left Maxie in charge of all of them.
They let the animal wear itself out before they decided to act, figuring it would be easiest to get rid of that way. They had talked Georgie into picking up the bag from the entrance and holding it closed until they could get it outside. Maxie had worried it might come back and threatened to beat it over the head with a rock, a threat that was as empty as her promises. Georgie had started crying nonetheless clearly disturbed by the idea of killing what was probably nothing more than a field mouse. In the end, they stacked more books on the sleeping bag and waited for their parents to come home and get rid of it.
"What the hell are you doing?" Maxie demanded, hands on her hips. Mike was always renting out this room, but it was the last place she had expected to see her arch nemesis. Lulu had never worked a day in her life so that must mean that, either her parents were handling her bills or Mike was picking up the tab. The second possibly made Maxie see red. As if the old guy didn't have enough to worry about, now he was taking in Lulu Spencer.
"Go away!" Lulu growled at her, pulling a pillow into her arms in hopes of being able to break its neck and/or crush the mouse if it ran past her.
"Why did you scream?" Maxie didn't know why she cared. It wasn't like she was going to help Lulu out of whatever predicament she had found herself in this time.
"There's a m-m-m-mouse." Lulu forced through gritted teeth.
"A m-m-m-mouse huh?" Maxie laughed. Ten years and Lulu was still terrified of mice.
"Don't make fun of me! It's huge!" Lulu insisted as her teeth started to chatter together.
"I'm sure." Maxie rolled her eyes. "I'd love to help, but I don't want to."
"Fine! Leave! Go ahead! I'll just make sure one of your customers finds it in one of their hamburgers." Lulu warned with a shaky grin.
"Just try it. I'll drop it into your box of cereal for you to find. I see you have three over there." Maxie countered defiantly.
"God, just help me. All we have to do is catch it—"
"I'm not catching anything." No sooner than the words had left her mouth, the mouse ran out from under the couch. "Kill it! Kill it!" Maxie wailed, taking off at a run.
"You kill it!" Lulu argued, throwing her shoe at the mouse and missing.
"All you have to do is step on it." Maxie was frozen in fear and disgust. She could run downstairs, the door was open and inviting, but then it could follow her into the kitchen. Quickly, she shut the door behind her. They had to confine the area.
"I'm not stepping on anything." Lulu assured her.
"Put your damn shoes on and kill the little son of a bitch!" Maxie ordered, running around the chair nearest the door.
Lulu watched the area where Maxie was now since it would make a lot of sense for the mouse to try to escape through the door. She couldn't believe that little witch had shut the door, but there wasn't a way to open it without leaving the comfort of the couch. Maxie's eyes widened and she pointed at Lulu's hand, moving back. Lulu followed the motion with her eyes and watched the mouse touch its tiny paw to her thumb. Screaming, she leapt off of the couch and ran for the kitchen.
"He's coming after you!" Maxie wasn't sure why she warned Lulu. It'd be funny as hell to watch her feet fly over her head again.
"Shut up! Shut up!" Lulu wailed, trying desperately to climb onto the counter.
Distracted by the door opening again, she was only vaguely aware of something skidding across her shoe. Looking down, another scream tore from her throat and she threw her leg out with as much strength as she could. The creature landed in Maxie's hair, to which the taller blonde shrieked and tried to disentangle it from her hair without actually touching it.
Satisfied that her hair was rodent-free, Maxie turned to see Ric standing in the doorway trying not to laugh. Without thinking, she ran over to him and jumped into his arms. "Kill it." She half whispered, half begged.
"How about you hop down so I can?" Ric suggested with a chuckle.
"I don't know or care who you are." Lulu informed him. "Just please get it."
"It's just a little mouse." Ric told them once he set Maxie on her feet. "Nothing to worry about. May I?" He asked gesturing toward a baseball cap Lulu had gotten at her very first game.
Lulu nodded enthusiastically and let out a sigh when he scooped the mouse into it and turned over the bill to keep it from getting out. When Maxie followed Ric out of the room, a little light bulb went off in Lulu's mind. Well now, she thought to herself. That's interesting. It wasn't uncommon for Maxie to cling to men she didn't know, but she seemed to be at least a little acquainted with the guy that had saved them from the mouse. She started to wonder if he would have been as hospitable if Maxie hadn't been in the room too.
The lilac polish was starting to crack and chip away, but Georgie couldn't bring herself to care enough to doctor it. Doctor, she thought grimly. Robin's phone call in the middle night. Lung Cancer. Surgery option open. Surgery confirmed. No contact as of now. She stared at the cell phone in her hands, willing it to ring, praying the news would be good. She had never felt so in need of her family than right this second. Not once, save the first week overseas, had she been hit with a longing for home, at least not to this extreme. Curling up and crying herself to sleep seemed a reasonable reaction considering she hadn't slept since that first phone call from the States. Her professors understood her need for a few days to think through what she was going to do. It was simple. Stupid simple. She had to go back to Port Charles.
Georgie turned the cell phone over and over in her hands, gritting her teeth at the overwhelming silence. What would she do if it never rang? What if the next call she got was to inform her that Alexis had died during surgery, or shortly thereafter? She had considered turning it to vibrate just to avoid the shrillness of her once-loved ring tone, but she was too worried that she would miss the call if she did. She didn't trust her voicemail. There was no option but to sit and wait. Her roommates had understood her seclusion much like her professors. She hadn't talked to Steven in over a week. Finals were kicking her butt and she hadn't had a spare minute to call him. He probably thought she was mad at him. Oh Georgiana, what are you worried about him for? Alexis is critical!
She had enough to worry about without adding whatever it was she had with Steven to the mix. She had just about convinced herself that her hormones had been on overdrive the last time they saw each other. It was bound to happen. Steven Webber was attractive and the last guy who had shown this much attention to her had gone off and gotten married to someone else. She could easily say that it had been too long since she had been in the company of a man and she was reacting on instinct and deprivation. But when he had smiled at her and told her he hadn't wanted to ruin the image she had of him, all of her so-called suppositions had gone down the drain. Georgie pulled her knees to her chin and buried her face between them. She did not need this right now.
Lost in her thoughts, Georgie jumped a foot in the air at the sound of her cell phone receiving a text message. Slapping her hand to her chest, she thumbed the enter button and read the message quickly. It was Steven, but then, of course it was. He probably knew she was sitting here thinking about him. "You need to get a grip." She chided herself, going to the window and glancing down at where Steven had said he was waiting for her. Brown curls brushing against his face, he looked up at the right moment and waved at her. She waved back weakly and returned to the seclusion of her room. He would come up now. He would want to know what was wrong. How would he even know? A little voice wondered. Georgie absently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and that was when she felt the onset of tears.
Knocking quietly on the door he knew was hers, Steven wondered what exactly was waiting for him on the other side. He had assumed finals had been keeping Georgie busy and that was the reason for her silence. But the random email he got from her roommates the other day concerned him more than he wanted to admit to himself.
She needs to talk to someone. And we think she'll only talk to you.
"Georgie girl?" He called through the door. "Come on, I won't interrupt your studying for long. I just wanted to show you something real quick. I promise. Two minutes and I'm gone." He carefully kept the small bag behind his back just in case she decided to actually use the peep hole in the door.
Georgie slowly got up from the bed and crossed the room. She opened the door halfway and was met with Steven's brilliant smile which dimmed the second he noticed how awful she must look cuddled up in a brown wool blanket, hair tangled, makeup washed away by tears and regret. "Hi." She managed quietly.
"Hi." He gently eased his way into the room, closing the door behind him as he went. "What's going on?"
"Same old, same old." Georgie lied, biting the inside of her cheek.
"Georgie. Something's wrong." He said simply, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
"My cousin called. Robin...you know...you met her. Anyway, she said that my dad's fiancé...that she's been diagnosed with lung cancer." Georgie choked out.
Steven blinked as he watched the tears start to fall down her face. In the back of his mind, ever since he moved across the country from his family, he had feared just this situation. Being far away from home, feeling helpless and knowing there was nothing you could do at this exact second. He reached up and pulled her down to sit next to him on the bed. "Come here," he whispered, gently laying her head on his shoulder, pulling her shaking body close to him.
Georgie closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of his hand on her cheek. She wanted to turn away from his tenderness, but it was too needed. Settling her arms around his waist, she leaned in closer and let out a ragged breath. "I'm not usually like this." She assured him in case he thought otherwise.
"I think this time it's understandable."
"I feel so...useless." She admitted uneasily.
"What do you know?" Steven pressed gently. "Do you know how advanced it is or anything?"
"It's centralized in her left lung. They're doing surgery—" Georgie glanced at Steven's watch, "now. The doctor was hesitant because, with the surgery, the tumor...the cancer could spread or she could lose several white blood cells leaving her unable to fight off diseases."
"So you're sitting here waiting for the phone to ring?"
"What else can I do? The first flight out of here—" Georgie was a little surprised that he cut her off.
"Leaving? You're leaving?"
Georgie couldn't meet his eyes. "I have to go home. My family needs me."
"Did they tell you to come home?"
"No, but they wouldn't."
"That may be true, but what did they say exactly?"
"That they'll call me the second they know something...that there's nothing I could do even if I was there, but I don't believe them. It's part of the Jones-Scorpio birthright: You don't ask for help. You do it yourself. Al—Alexis will fit right in." Georgie ducked her face from his view so he couldn't the catch the new wave of tears forming in her eyes.
"Hey look at me." He tried to turn her toward him. "How long have you been sitting up here by yourself worrying about this?"
"A long time I guess." Georgie murmured.
"I'm going to guess from the second you found out. That's why you've been ducking me lately right?"
"I haven't been ducking you. Or not just you. I haven't even gone to class..." Georgie prattled on.
"Or talked to your roommates." He held up his hand when he saw her start to protest. "They emailed me. They're worried about you."
"They did what?" Georgie shrieked.
"They said you were upset and not talking. They thought I might have better luck getting you to talk for some reason." Steven shrugged. "It doesn't really matter, because they were just trying to help."
"For some reason." Georgie parroted. "You came here to check on me as a favor to my roommates?" She asked carefully.
"No. I was coming by anyway to see you. They just sped up the timetable is all."
"Yeah?" Georgie felt something like a smile grace her lips. "Did you miss me?" She teased him.
"Of course I did. Who else is going to tell me A Walk to Remember is actually a good movie?"
"There is that. Steven, can I ask you a favor?" Georgie whispered, staring down at her hands.
"Name it Georgie."
"Can you—could you hold me just a little longer?"
"Sure thing." Steven pulled her closer to him and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "I'll stay as long as you need me to."