"Louise! Louise!" Jax slammed his fists against the glass dining room table. A short blonde in a black and white uniform entered the room as calmly as ever. "Louise, where is my paper?"
Louise nodded to the coffee table in the living room. "Paper." The word was barely understood behind her thick German accent.
"What is it doing in the living room?" Jax scolded, leaving the table and snatching up the paper. "How hard can it be to put the paper on the kitchen table?"
"Paper." She repeated, turning her back to him to pour herself a cup of coffee.
"Louisa? Is that my favorite cup?"
She took a sip and then faced him. "Coffee." As the word escaped her lips, she smiled.
"Would you mind making me some coffee?"
"Coffee for Mr. Jacks." She pulled open each cabinet, only looking up for a second.
Jax yanked open a cabinet she had yet to get to. "How long have you worked here? The coffee cups are here."
"Oh. Thank you Mr. Jacks." Louise moved away from the sink and continued drinking her coffee.
"No. Thank you." He sneered. "Please go away. I'd like to read my paper in piece."
"Uh oh." Louise tried not to smile.
"Uh oh? Uh oh?" Jax's eyes widened when he realized what she was giggling about. He picked up a cold cup of coffee that had been resting on top of his newspaper. Holding it up, he asked, "How am I supposed to read this now? Get out. Just go away."
"No coffee?" Louise nodded toward his forgotten cup.
"No coffee." Jax gritted out.
"Okay. Have a nice day Mr. Jacks. Don't sleep too hard."
"It's work Louise. Don't work too hard." Jax corrected.
"I won't." Louise slipped out of the apartment.
"I am surrounded by idiots." Jax complained, trying to pull the pages apart without disassembling it. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed a familiar number. "Walter? This is Jasper Jacks in the penthouse. My housekeeper systematically destroyed my newspaper. I need another one. Thank you." Jax closed the phone and did his best not to slam it down in frustration. It was like the whole world was against him today.
Five minutes later, a fresh paper was delivered to his door. His victory was short-lived. He never got past the first page.
*****
"Incoming." Becca warned, putting a phone to her ear, pretending to be on an important call.
"Excuse me?" Jax muttered. She didn't react. "Excuse me!"
"Yes sir? Can I help you?" Becca asked.
"I demand to see Cruz Rodriguez." Jax clarified impatiently, the paper still clutched in his fist.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"I think he'll see me."
"Have a seat. I'll be glad to see if he's available. He's very busy this morning."
"I'd rather stand and don't try to give me the brush-off."
"Suit yourself." Becca shrugged, trying to keep a straight face as she picked up the phone. "Mr. Rodriguez? A Mr. Jacks is here to see you?" She paused slightly and nodded. "Of course Sir." Smiling as she hung up the phone Becca pointed down the hall to the only private area in the entire office, the newly expanded break room. "Just behind that door sir. He's anxious to talk to you."
"Oh I'll bet he is." Jax grumbled, finding the break room without any trouble. He threw open the door with enough force to make it bounce off the wall. "What the hell are you trying to pull?"
"Pull? I'm not trying to pull anything." Cruz defended calmly, remaining seated.
"I hope this little stunt did something for your ego after the last time I knocked you down, but I demand a retraction."
"You're not getting it."
"It's lies. I'll sue you!"
"You won't win." Cruz finally stood up and walked toward the other man. "I can back up every single claim in that article."
"The hell you can!"
"The hell we can't." Kate corrected as she walked coolly into the room. Smiling at Cruz, she made her way over to where he was standing. "Sorry I'm late partner. Did I miss anything exciting?"
"Nothing." Cruz shrugged.
"Good. You know how I much I hate to be out of the loop." Kate sighed.
"P-partner?" Jax sputtered incredulously.
"Oh. Didn't I tell you? Your repeated job offers intrigued me to find out what was so special about this place. After meeting Cruz here, I just knew it was him. So I bet on a winning horse. Hope you don't mind."
"I offered you the chance of a lifetime and you spit all over it? For what? A dying newspaper? A zealous, desperate businessman? And I use that word in the simplest of forms considering the way he buckles under pressure."
"You mean the brilliant investigative reporter who just helped break the biggest story the financial world has ever seen?" Kate smiled sweetly. "The one that has granted me not only an exclusive interview, but exclusive use of his material for my use on television? Because I'm pretty sure after today no one is going to call him desperate or this paper dying."
"Before this is over, I'll ruin you." Jax promised angrily.
"You have your issues to tend to Jax." Cruz pointed out. "To start with, the hoards of angry investors looking for their money. Any comment on when they can expect restitution or have you already squirreled it away in an offshore account?"
"I will not be made to look like a fool because of your overactive imagination."
"So you're officially denying our report?"
"You better believe it."
Turning to Kate, Cruz nodded his head. "Well at least you have your sound bite for the six o' clock news."
"Six o' clock news?"
"I've had some calls from the networks." Kate shrugged. "I'm sure they've left messages at your office."
"I have no comment. Why don't you print that you leeches!"
*****
It had been a long, sleepless night, followed by a longer morning. If he made it in the house and into bed before he completely collapsed, Lucky would consider he was living up to his nickname. All he wanted to do was go to sleep and pretend the last twenty-four hours had never happened.
Normally Elizabeth would be suspicious, but Jake had woken up this morning with a low-grade fever. He had tried to convince her she was just overreacting, but she had insisted on staying home. If he had timed it right, Jake, Gracie, and Elizabeth would all be sleeping when he got home. Cameron was still in school. He could sneak past them, go down to his office, and fall asleep in his chair. If his brain would let him.
A part of him was still stuck in his office yesterday. Still seeing Evan Cassidy's, correction Detective Cassidy's smug face as he sauntered into his office. Still taking delight in proving that Cassidy didn't know Lulu as well as he was claiming to. Still feeling his own sense of superiority slip completely as Cassidy started filling in the blanks on why exactly his sister had been AWOL from the family for months now.
Of course, he was still seeing the horror settle in as the extent of the trouble Lulu had gotten herself into made itself clear. He had always been able to shield her from any mistakes she had made. Run off the bullies. Run interference with Mom and Dad. Sometimes he had to involve Patrick, but almost always he had been able to handle it. Now he couldn't. Even being almost related to Steven couldn't really help her. If Evan was right, and Lucky had the sinking sensation he was, there was no amount of money or influence he could exert to make this just go away.
He blinked a few times, trying to place the unfamiliar car in his driveway. Walking past it carefully, he tried to figure out who would be there. Hell would freeze over before Elizabeth's parents would come this way, but if they had showed up, Elizabeth would probably be too shocked to do anything other than let them inside. Picking up his pace, he opened the front door concerned. "Elizabeth?"
"Lucky!" Elizabeth turned around smiling from her position on the chair. "What are you doing home?"
"I thought I'd just check on you." He said slowly as he saw Steven and Georgie sitting on the couch, playing with Jake and Gracie. "Hi Georgie. When did you get back Steven?"
"Yesterday." Steven answered, tickling under Gracie's chin.
"I thought you weren't going to be done for another couple of months."
"Something came up." Steven grinned, reaching for Georgie's hand.
"Yeah you mentioned that, but never explained." Elizabeth pointed out.
"Do you want to tell them?" Steven asked his wife. "Or should I?"
"Tell us what?" Elizabeth demanded.
"You go ahead." Georgie smiled. "I know you are dying to."
"Let's just say we're about to add another member to this side of the Webber team." Steven explained, squeezing Georgie's hand.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! You're pregnant?" Elizabeth gasped happily.
"Like all good things, this was totally a surprise." Steven told them. "Mac came and found me in Australia and told me to get home to my wife a.s.a.p."
"Does this mean you're going to increase baby-sitting offers because you need to practice?" Elizabeth teased.
"Well I don't need the practice, but your brother on the other hand..." Georgie smiled.
"Hey! I have a lot of experience. I did help raise you." He told his sister.
"And look how well that turned out. Living in sin, two children out of wedlock. Like I said, you need practice."
"Yes, but thanks to me you're actually getting married before these two are old enough to drink." Steven threw back.
"Thanks to you?" Georgie parroted, giving him a look.
"Really? That didn't work?" Steven asked, glancing up at Lucky.
"No. Harassing me every day doesn't count." Lucky managed.
"Hey Lucky, are you okay?" Georgie wanted to know.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just surprised. Happy for you guys, but surprised." Lucky shook his head and tried to genuinely smile. He was happy for them. There was just the small thing making the whole situation a whole lot worse. He couldn't rain on their happiness. And he couldn't just abandon his sister either.
"Thanks. It means a lot...coming from you." Steven grudgingly admitted, slipping off the couch when Georgie reached over and poked him in the side.
"Yeah well, I figure you'll be begging me for help sooner or later."
Elizabeth stood up to hug them both. "This is great. I'm so happy for you. Although I do question why you want to add to our little insane family, I am thrilled for you."
Family. Her words hung around his neck like a noose. Unconsciously Lucky played with his tie. Lulu was his family. Steven was his family. This new baby was his family. His parents had always taught him family was the priority. Family came first. They just forgot to mention how to handle it when protecting one member of your family, meant hurting another.