Title: Life Left to Go
Word Count: 5,020
Pairings: Dante Falconeri / Leslie Lu Spencer , Johnny Zacchara / Leslie Lu Spencer
Rating: PG-13 for the language.
Warnings/Spoilers: Here's where it gets complicated. The carnival happened, Johnny was shot. Carly nearly lost the baby. AU from the point that Claudia knows that Dante is Sonny's son BUT she doesn't know that Dominic is Dante.
Summary: There's no pain you feel that I know love can't heal.
Official Disclaimer: All General Hospital characters and plots belong to ABC. I do not hold stock the company. Leslie Lu Spencer, Dante Falconeri, and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title comes from SafetySuit's Life Left to Go. I don't own that either.
Ethan hated hospitals. The first time he had even been in one had been after his parent's accident. After that fateful day they only served to remind him of how close ones mortality was or a con gone wrong. Until he had settled in Port Charles he had avoided the cold sterile buildings like the plague whenever possible. He shook his head and took another sip of the coffee that Rebecca had brought him. In order to keep their sanity, she and Sam had taken turns running down the street to the coffee shop on Third to keep the group stocked in coffee and an assortment of pastries that no one seemed to want to eat. So far Lulu had been in surgery for seven hours and no one had come out to update them yet.
They had officially taken over the waiting room hours ago, Lucky being the first to stake his claim as he dropped onto the chair closest to the door, Elizabeth at his side. Jason and Sam had taken the back corner, the former alternating between barking orders on the phone to whichever lackey was calling to say that they had yet to find something, and sitting stoically and staring at the ceiling. Beside him Milo had taken to playing Pac Man on his cell phone, propping his feet up in the chair across from him. Jax had shown up ten minutes after they had moved up the stairs, and when Carly had stubbornly refused to go home and wait for the news about what was probably her favorite cousin, he had successfully bribed an orderly into bringing one of the loungers from the maternity ward into the small room for her. She wasn't happy about the fact that he had physically stopped her from pacing, but she wasn't being forced home, so she would take what she could get. Maxie and Spinelli had joined the group sometime in the last five hours, the blonde fashionista moving heaven and Earth to cover what Lulu was heading to the office to finish and the latter using the hospital's Wi-Fi service to hack into the City of Port Charles security mainframe to go through the camera footage. It was something that he could have done at the penthouse, but after no word on Lulu, he and his non-wife had decided that they would feel better if they were waiting with everyone else.
Nikolas still hadn't shown up yet, which prompted Lucky to be even more sullen. Their little sister could be dying and he couldn't afford to answer a 911 text? Then again Tracy hadn't arrived either. Ethan and Rebecca had decided early on that Quartermaine involvement until they had any real news would only serve to turn this whole disaster into a circus. They were planning on calling his step-mother as soon as Lulu was out of surgery. And no one could get a hold of Luke. The Spencer patriarch having left his cell phone on top of his desk at the Haunted Star.
When he stepped out of the operating suite, Patrick knew what kind of group would be waiting on him. He had had the personal experience of watching this particular group of people rallying for someone's life before, and while he didn't envy the position that they were in, he was glad that his patient had such a loyal group there for her. Carly was the first on her feet, before he had even made it through the door, and the rest seemed to follow. The silence in the room was suddenly deafening as he glanced over her chart. He wanted to make sure that he gave them all of the information that they needed.
"She made it out of surgery." Patrick said slowly, watching the faces of the collective Spencer family all sigh in relief. "She's not out of the woods yet." He made sure to say quickly. "We had to perform a thoracotomy in order to collect all three bullet fragments, which means that recovery could take a long time and it's not without risks. She was exceptionally lucky none of the bullets did any extreme damage to vital organs. We did have to re-inflate her right lung, though, which we'll have to keep an eye on.
"We've started her on antibiotics and we still haven't taken her off of the ventilator." He was talking more to Elizabeth and Rebecca, knowing that once he was able to leave it would be up to them to explain exactly what was going on. "We're moving her to an ICU single for a few days, and until we can rule out hypoxia and respiratory failure we're going to keep her in a medically induced coma." Lucky's eyes closed at the word 'coma' and Patrick placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "Her body will start to heal faster that way, and we can ensure that external movements don't cause internal problems."
Elizabeth's arm went around her fiancé and she forced a smile in Patrick's direction. "How long will you keep her sedated?" She asked quickly, trying to convey to the doctor that continued use of the term 'coma' may be detrimental to everyone.
"If her body responds to the antibiotics and we're sure the repaired lung won't collapse again, we should be able to remove the tube as early as the day after tomorrow and begin the process to wake her up in as little as four days." Patrick looked up from the chart again and reminded himself that for the next week Lulu was a patient, not a friend. In order for her to get better he needed to do his job, not worry about feelings. He just couldn't help but to think that it could have easily have been his wife's cousin that was on the operating table tonight. All he really wanted to do now was go change his clothes, check on Lulu one more time and go home to hug his wife and daughter. "They're moving her into her room now." He said at last. "I'm not going to have Epiphany impose the one visitor at a time rule; because I know you guys wouldn't follow it anyway, but keep the excitement to a minimum. When she wakes up Lulu is going to need peace and stability." He touched Liz's shoulder one last time before dropping the hand holding the medical chart to his side. "Call me if you need anything."
"Thanks Patrick." Elizabeth steered Lucky back to the chairs and then turned to the rest of the group. She paused then, not entirely sure what to say next.
Thankfully, Sam spoke up for her. "I'm going to go call Sonny." She said after a second, pulling her Blackberry from its holster. She kissed Jason on the cheek and patted Lucky's shoulder on her way out of the room.
For the first time since she had heard the news, Carly felt like she could breathe. "We're going home." Jax said to her quickly, before she could get the idea in her head that she would be one of those keeping vigil at Lulu's bedside. When she opened her mouth to protest he gave her a stern look. "I'll bring you back up here in the morning after you've gotten at least eight hours of sleep and had more to eat then cheese Danish."
She didn't argue, knowing that Jason would only get involved if she did. Instead she turned to her cousin. "She's going to make it." She whispered to Lucky as she wrapped him in another hug. "I'll be back first thing tomorrow." She promised. "Call me if you need anything."
Lucky nodded, returning the hug and trying his hardest not to cry. His sister had been shot. His sister made it out of surgery. "I will." He said once he realized that she was looking for some kind of confirmation that she had been heard, and after another round of hugs, Carly and Jax had made it out of the room.
Spinelli and Maxie were the next to leave. Jason had ordered them home to the penthouse to get some sleep and Maxie promised to come back in the morning with a few nightgowns for Lulu to wear. Non-hospital regulation gowns weren't important in the grand scheme of things, but Maxie needed to feel like she was doing something more than making sure that Lulu's job was covered. She made a mental note to call No Name in the morning and have them put together lunch for the people that were undoubtedly staying at the hospital.
"Someone should call Tracy." Ethan said at last, dropping down into the chair directly across from his half-brother. He wasn't looking forward to that conversation, even though he was sure he was going to be the one to have to have it.
"I'll call the house." Rebecca said after watching the brother's have a silent argument. She checked her watch and sighed. It wasn't a conversation that she wanted to be having at three in the morning, but she felt rather helpless just standing around. When Lucky opened his mouth to say something else, she nodded. "Then I'll try Nikolas again." She promised, running a hand over the top of Ethan's head before heading out.
Although she wasn't quite sure when Jason had left the room, Liz was more than a little grateful. Lucky had been shooting the enforcer visual daggers ever since he had managed to pull himself out of the functional coma that he had slid into when he was told where his sister was. Milo remained though, standing unobtrusively off to the side. He had been left there on purpose, to act as a go between with the mob family without them actually being there, and Liz couldn't help but smile at the man. While Lulu had shot him down romantically, Milo had remained a very good friend to her sister-in-law.
A nurse came shortly, to take them to Lulu's ICU room and Lucky followed her without a second thought as Liz watched Ethan check his phone again for some sign that their father had gotten any of the messages that he had left around the world. With a shake of the head and a sigh, Ethan shoved his phone back in his pocket and stood, following her from the room.
"Laura." Liz said quickly, turning to Luke's middle child. "We didn't arrange a ride from the airport." She smacked herself on the forehead and then turned in the direction that Lucky had gone with the nurse. "Lucky – "
He smiled then, watching Liz try to shoulder all of Lucky's responsibility to the family on her own. "I'll go." Ethan decided before he could stop himself. "Lucky's not going to tear himself from her bedside until he has to, and you should be here for him."
"Lulu's your sister too." She said sympathetically. Despite what Lucky may have said about his half-brother, Ethan had tried his best to build a relationship with their sister.
"I need to be doing something." He said after a second. And although he wouldn't admit it to Elizabeth, he was more than interested in meeting the woman that had managed to tame the illustrious Luke Spencer for a time.
Elizabeth smiled, running her hand up Ethan's arm. "You're a good big brother too." She said after a second, before pulling Ethan into a hug and turning to head in the direction that Lucky had gone in.
He made sure to leave through the main entrance, kissing Rebecca on the cheek and letting her know where he was heading as he lightly frisked her for the keys to the SUV that the Quartermaines were letting her use. He held them up to show her that he had them and then turned toward the parking garage.
Ever since she had been aware enough to process the fact that her youngest son was a police officer for the Port Charles Police Department, Laura Webber Spencer had been terrified of the day the phone would ring and tell her that he had been shot in the line of duty. It had happened before, while she was still comatose and she knew it would be a matter of time before it would happen again. When the phone woke her up at three am she had held her breath as Elizabeth explained that there had been a shooting. Her first thought, and subsequently first question had been whether or not Lucky was all right. When her sometimes daughter-in-law had calmly explained that Lucky wasn't the child she was calling about, Laura's blood ran cold.
She hadn't thought twice before telling Liz that she was on the first flight out, taking a tiny bit of comfort in the fact that the second he had been awake enough to realize the crisis, Scott had already started throwing jeans and sweaters into a carryon for her, and then pulled her passport from the nightstand. He had asked as soon as she got off the phone if she had wanted him to come with her, not taking offense when she explained that the situation was probably volatile enough without adding him to the mix. Upon arriving at the airport, she had been pleasantly confused to find at the information desk that the Jacks corporate jet was waiting for her on one of the private airstrips. Her confusion turned to surprise when the flight attendant told her that it was Mrs. Jacks that had demanded the flight and that if there was anything she needed to let them know.
Unfortunately, private jet or not, she still had to go through customs, and once she had cleared the gate she stopped, hand going to her cell phone so she could call her son to find out whether or not she needed to take a cab. She had had the phone flipped open, eyes scanning the numbers when something compelled her to look up.
Directly in front of her, wearing a plain black tee and a pair of baggy jeans with a dark blue flannel shirt over top of it and a leather jacket over top of that was a face that she would have sworn that she hadn't seen in years. He ran a hand through his shaggy dark hair while the other held up a makeshift sign that looked like it had once been a cocktail napkin. She chuckled slightly when she read the name, all bold black letters, no last name: LAURA.
Now Ethan had to admit that he had never seen a picture of his father's ex-wife. It wasn't that he hadn't been given the opportunity, Lulu had inherited plenty of photo albums and she had tried on multiple occasions pull them out to show him the man their father had been. He had been scanning the crowd slowly for the last ten minutes, trying to decide which elegant blonde had once and possibly still held his father's heart when he noticed her.
She was almost the exact same height as Lesley Lu, and he now understood why Luke had spent so many drunken nights telling him about his inability to look at the young girl once Laura had had her breakdown. Lulu had her mother's face, complete with the high cheekbones and the curve of her chin. Lucky had Laura's eyes though, and once Ethan noticed that he had her attention he balled up the napkin that he had found in Rebecca's glove box to create the sign and shoved it in his pocket. "Laura?" He asked slowly, drawing the name out as if he had never heard it uttered before.
There was a moment when Laura reminded herself of what her daughter had said about Luke's charming second born. After the DNA tests had confirmed that Ethan was truly one of the Spencer clan, Lulu had literally spent hours on the phone with her mother trying to make sense of it all. Laura had been shocked at first, and then angry before a wayward comment had reminded her that this must have been the way Luke had felt all those years ago when Nikolas was suddenly brought to town to help an ailing Lulu. The only difference was that Laura had had full knowledge of her oldest son. Luke hadn't known Ethan existed until he had come to Port Charles. "Ethan." She said after a moment, cinching her carryon and purse further up her shoulder before extending a hand.
He clasped her hand, turning it flat before pulling it to his lips. "At least now I know what the fuss is about." He smirked.
She allowed him to relieve her of her carryon, pulling it over his shoulder so the strap cut across his chest. "How's Lulu?" She asked tentively. If Ethan was in the mood to try to be suave, then hopefully something had gone right.
"Out of surgery." He said at first, holding his arm out so she could grab hold as to not lose each other in the crowd. Leading her around the lost travelers, Ethan had to slow his step so she could keep up. "One of the bullets collapsed a lung so Dr. Drake said that they were going to do something or another until they were sure that what they did to repair the damage will hold." Laura nodded beside him and he laughed. "The medical jumbo confused me so you're probably better off asking Elizabeth or Lucky."
"He won't tell you, but I think Lucky is just as lost as you are with it." Laura couldn't help but laugh when she realized that he was leading her to the SUV that was double parked in the fire lane right outside the double doors. He opened the door for her and set her bag in the back seat. "Are we headed to the hospital?" She asked once he hopped into his side.
"Unless you want me to take you to the house." Of all of the ways for his first meeting with Laura Spencer to go, Ethan was shocked to admit that the reality was nowhere near the fantasy.
The choice had been made long before Laura had gotten onto the jet. "I want to see my daughter." She said softly, watching Ethan shove the key into the ignition and bringing the engine to life. He didn't respond as he navigated out of the motor pool.
They rode for fifteen minutes without the radio on before Ethan spared another glance at the woman. "Ask it." He said after a moment. He didn't offer her an explanation, and amazingly enough, Laura didn't need one.
Even with this Aussie lilt, Laura couldn't deny that he was Luke's child. "Where's your father?" She turned in the seat to face him.
"Around." He let out slowly. When Laura cocked an eyebrow, he forced out a sigh. "Lucky called it a 'walk about.'" He reiterated. "Apparently finding his long lost son sent him running."
That's when Laura noticed the difference. Luke had spent many of the first years of his life schooling his attitude to not let things like disappointment and heartache show. He had once joked with her that it was essential to every con to be able to control your emotions. She had blamed that trait for the fact that he had so easily let her go all those years ago. As she studied Ethan's face, she realized that he may have managed to follow in a lot of his father's footsteps unwittingly, but that was one trait that wasn't genetic. "It's not you." She promised him carefully, daring to pull one hand from her lap and setting it on top of his one the gear shift. "Luke doesn't stay in one place for very long. He's not made that way." When Ethan shook his head, Laura nodded. "You'll learn." She decided, patting his hand again. "And he'll come back. He always does."
He hadn't been allowed in the room while they were getting his sister situated. He tried not to let it bother him that it had taken three nurses almost an hour to un-hooked and re-hooked to the various machines that Patrick had insisted were more or less a precaution. She had monitors and electrodes connected to almost all visible patches of skin and her IV had three leads running from various bags to her left. The nurse laid Lulu's arm down and corrected the leads. She double checked the ventilator tube and reset the blood pressure cuff so it checked her vitals once every fifteen minutes.
When the barrage of staff left the room he pulled the solitary chair closer to the bed and dropped himself in it. He didn't trust himself to touch her hand, not wanting to hurt her even in the slightest. He couldn't help but be reminded of many years ago when she was curled up in a different kind of ICU bed, holding on to her life with both of her weak hands. Leaning back in his chair, he shook his head, willing himself to just hold it together long enough for her to get well. He could scream and shout and beat the hell out of every mobster that has gotten near Lulu in the last twenty-two years but he needed to wait until Lulu was better. Everything could wait until Lulu was better.
The door behind him opened slowly, he heard the shuffle before he turned, and he was out of the chair and in his mother's arms before his next breath. He paid no attention to the two people in the hall behind her and just allowed himself a moment of being the mama's boy he was never allowed to b e.
"If you wanted me to visit, you could have just asked nicely." She whispered into his neck, willing the tears in her eyes into remission. Her son chuckled stiffly around her and she ran a hand over the back of his head. "I'm here now." She promised him as he started to release her. "It's going to be all right."
"I'm sorry." Lucky moved away from her slowly, allowing her to catch her first glimpse of her daughter. Instinctively her hand came up to her mouth and she couldn't stop the gasp.
Elizabeth had stopped her on her way to the room to warn her about what she was going to face, but standing three feet away from her daughter as she was unconsciously fighting for her life was a completely different matter. She moved away from Lucky slowly, walking up towards the head of the bed. She gently brushed aside a stray hair that had fallen out of the cap that they had put on her head and then she cupped her daughter's cheek. "Lesley Lu."
"I know Patrick said he wasn't going to enforce certain rules," a voice said from behind her. "But sooner or later you guys are going to have to leave the hospital to sleep."
Laura turned slowly, trying to tear her eyes away from her daughter's face and looked at the dark haired gentleman in the scrubs and lab coat. She couldn't be certain that this had been one of the surgeons, but considering the fact that his scrubs had what looked to be drying blood on them she was going to make that guess. "How is she?"
He looked from Lucky to Elizabeth and then back to Laura. "I need to discuss that with Lulu's family." He said slowly.
"Dr. Hunter, meet my mom, Laura Spencer." Lucky motioned between the two of them. "Mom this is Matt, he's Lulu's doctor."
"And sometimes carnival date." Matt extended a hand and when Laura didn't shake it he sighed. "Nurse Phelps told me that Lulu got tucked in all right, I was just checking on her before I head home." When Laura's face paled he shook his head. "Dr. Long has been briefed on Lulu's condition, and he will be able to hold down the fort until I get back here in," he checked his watch, "eight hours."
"How is she now?" Laura asked again.
If it were any other family, Matt probably would have brushed them off and had a nurse page Dr. Long on his way out the door. But he cast a quick glance to the girl on the bed and smiled. "One of the bullets pierced her right lung. We had to intubate her and reinflate the lung before we could go after the other two bullets. She had a cracked rib and the third bullet seemed to get stuck in her breast. That wound was more or less superficial." Laura nodded, trying to file all of this information away for a time when she could grill Bobbie. All in all Matt was doing an excellent job of dummying down the medical terminology.
"Why do you still have her on the ventilator?" She asked carefully.
"We patched the hole in the lung before we reinflated, but with all gunshot wounds where the lungs are involved, we're worried about the O2 levels. We want to make sure the lung is strong enough to sustain the pressure before we let her go on her own." He spared a sad smile to the girl in the bed and then looked back at Lucky and his mother. "We've started her on a panel of antibiotics to help fight the infection and risk of hypoxia. Her hematocrit level was also on the low side of the scale so we're doing another blood panel, and we may transfuse her again." There was another nod and he watched as Laura turned around again, effectively ending the conversation and ignoring him all at the same time. "I'm back around one," he told Lucky. "And both Patrick and I have left instructions that we're to be paged it anything changes."
Lucky shook hands with the doctor and pulled the door open wider. "Thanks man." He said slowly.
"Try to have a good night." Matt made sure to shake hands with Ethan on his way down the hall.
Ethan moved into the room slowly then, leaning against the wall. "Hunter was right though." He said cautiously, looking from his sister to brother and finally to Laura. "This room isn't big enough for all of us." He watched as Lucky sank into the long chair and shook his head. "Some of us are going to have to sleep eventually."
"I'm staying here until Lu wakes up." Lucky started indignantly. He had failed his sister in the past, but he would be damned before he left her alone.
Laura watched her sons face cloud over and then turned to Elizabeth. "You and Elizabeth should go home and get some sleep." She said quickly, watching her son rise again and prepare to state his case. "Your sister isn't going to be waking up any time soon and you've been up for almost twenty four hours by now. I'm here, and I'm not leaving this room until you've had some sleep."
He wanted to fight his mother. He wanted to yell and scream and pound his fists on his chest in a masculine attempt to assert himself. He wanted to make her understand that ever since she had gotten sick Lulu had been his and Nikolas's responsibility. But the look in her eyes was one that not even his father would have been able to win over, and he frowned in defeat when Elizabeth wrapped her arm around his middle.
"Six hours." He promised her, leaning down to brush a kiss over his sister's forehead and then pulling his mother into another hug. "I'll be back in six hours."
"Sleep for at least five." Laura ordered gently, kissing his cheek. "I love you."
Lucky nodded and then allowed himself to be drug from the room.
When the door shut, Laura dropped herself onto the seat, letting her purse finally hit the floor before looking up at Ethan. "How long do you think I have before Tracy shows up?"
He laughed; an unnervingly familiar sound. "Rebecca said Tracy didn't answer, but Dr. Quartermaine said she would tell her when she woke up." He checked his watch and laughed again. "About two hours. Three tops."
"Would now be a good time to tell you that I don't particularly care for your father's wife?" She asked offhandedly, not taking her eyes away from her daughter. She had missed too many years of that little girl's life for the rest of it to be wasted now.
"Not many people do." Ethan concluded. He watched Laura yawn and then nodded to himself. "Can I get you anything?" He asked before he could stop himself. Unlike his brother or his brother's wife he wasn't built to keep vigil at someone's bedside. Not that he was too keen on leaving Laura alone for extended periods of time; he just needed to be doing something.
Laura nodded, recognizing the restlessness in the man's voice rather than his appearance. When Lulu had been hospitalized after birth, Luke hadn't been able to sit by and watch her breathe either. "A decent cup of coffee." She decided after a second. "And possibly a muffin."
Ethan double checked his pants for his wallet and smiled. "Coming right up." He placed a quick hand on the bed where he hoped one of his sister's feet was and then he was gone, shutting the door fully behind him.
There was about three minutes of silence. One hundred and eighty seconds where all Laura did was count her daughter's breaths. Then the door opened again, and she almost laughed. "I don't think the cafeteria has coffee I'd call decent." She joked carefully.
There was a cough, and her head whipped around at the sound. "I wasn't told to bring coffee." The young man in front of her said quickly. His eyes cut to the bed and then back to her and he tried his hardest to smile. He had seen Lucky and Elizabeth leave when he had pulled up and Milo had told him Ethan was running downstairs for a minute. With no one in the room he thought it would have been the perfect time to visit. "Although if you tell me what kind you like I won't make that mistake again, Mrs…"
"Spencer." Laura filled in the gap. "Laura Spencer."
"Lulu's mom." He said almost knowingly, holding his hand out to shake. "Dominic Pirelli."
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