Written in 59 minutes. Huge thanks to Mariah and Pilar for the plot bunny!!!

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Friday, October 13, 2000

Kelly’s: Dining Room

There were few shifts more grueling than the early morning rush at Kelly’s Diner on a Friday morning. The days were gradually growing shorter and shorter, the sun rising over the lake later and later. The air more crisp, the chill of wind biting just a little harder as the fall firmly settled over upper New York state, hinting at the harsh winter to come.

Elizabeth Webber had never been a morning person, but she’d learned early in her tenure as a waitress that if Ruby Anderson put you on the schedule, you had better show up and that hadn’t changed when the diner had been passed to her niece and nephew. Tammy Carson ran a tight shift — and Elizabeth owed her big time since she’d dropped to part-time hours over the summer and then no-showed last week on her shifts.

Of course, Elizabeth had a good reason — her best friend in the entire world had been taken hostage after a terrible plan had backfired, leaving Emily Quartermaine barreling towards the Canadian border in the company of drug dealer Zander Smith. Elizabeth and Emily’s friends and family had rushed into action, though she hadn’t really been necessary in the end. She’d almost been taken hostage herself.

That’s where she’d been a week ago instead of behind the counter at Kelly’s — in a clearing near the Canadian border, helpless as one of the goons from Zander’s bosses who were also on the heiress and drug dealer’s tail,  had caught her and her boyfriend, Lucky Spencer, unaware. Lucky had been trying to negotiate Elizabeth’s release without any luck. Fortunately, Emily’s older, Jason Morgan had arrived. He was much more equipped for those kinds of situations.

Now, Elizabeth had to pay for her trip north by opening and closing the diner that day.

“Next time, I’ll find coverage for my shift before I take off,” she muttered to herself, bending beneath the counter to locate the tub of napkins and clean utensils so she could wrap a bunch before the rush of warehouse and dock workers descended on her. She already had three big pots of coffee ready to go — this time of day, there was no point in even brewing decaf.

When she popped up with the plastic tub in her arms, she let out a startled half-scream, half-laugh. Jason was on the other side of the counter. “You scared the crap out of me.” She set the tub on the counter. “I wasn’t expecting anyone for at least twenty more minutes.”

He grinned at her, with the rare sparkle of amusement in his icy blue eyes. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I can come back, you know, if you’re too busy.”

“Don’t you dare—” She rolled her eyes, turned towards the coffee machines on the low counter behind her, then turned back, hesitating. “To go?”

“No, a cup is good.” He slid onto one of the stools. “You don’t normally open.”

“No, but—” Elizabeth grimaced, lifting a cup and saucer to sit in front of him. She flipped it open, then tilted the carafe until the dark liquid poured. “I’m doing penance for my botched attempt to save Emily. Double shift.”

He lifted his sandy brows, a hint of the smile still lingering at the corners of his mouth. “I did tell you to let me handle it.”

“Really? You’re going with ‘I told you so’?” She wrinkled her nose. “I expected better from you.” Jason just shrugged, but was still smiling. She busied herself with the sidework, collecting a knife and fork, then rolling it into the napkin. “I thought you were planning to head out. And, no, I’m not trying to get rid of you,” she added when Jason opened his mouth, that teasing light still in his eyes. “I was just wondering how long we get to keep you around.”

“I was thinking about it, but—” His expression sobered slightly.  “Zander Smith might be in jail, but that’s not over,” he said to her. “I wish you’d both come to me sooner.”

“I wanted to—you know that.” Elizabeth sighed. “And we should have. We just wanted to handle it on our own—and I didn’t want to upset Lucky.” She bit her lip, set aside another napkin bundle, began a new one. “Before we figured out about the brainwashing, he was so upset every time we questioned one of his plans—”

“Elizabeth.”

“It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, but Lucky really did convince me that tying you in anyway to…” A dead police officer. She couldn’t even say it out loud. “It could make what you already dealing with because of Sonny’s problems—”

“Sonny is always going to be in trouble with the cops—”

“Well, yeah, now that he’s married to Carly, that’s a guarantee.” When Jason just sighed, Elizabeth made another face. “Are we not supposed to talk about that? Because we don’t have to. I know that’s…” A sensitive subject considering all that had happened over the last year. “Anyway — we could just not talk about any of it.”

“You mean, stop bringing up how you and Emily almost ended up dead,” Jason said, his expression bland. “She told me you were drugged by the same guy that kidnapped her.”

“She—Okay. She should not have told you that. It’s okay. I was safe—you’re getting that look again, and I’ll just agree that we should have gone to Sonny before you were home, and then absolutely to you. I promise.” She held up two fingers. “Scout’s Honor. The next time I’m in any kind of shady trouble, you’re my first call.”

“I know what that means, and there’s no way you were ever a Girl Scout,” Jason said.

She grinned. “Okay, you caught me, but I have learned my lesson. We leave the dangerous stuff to you. Now—” Elizabeth folded her arms, leaned over the counter. “How long do we get to keep you around?”

Luke’s: Bar

Lucky set a box of liquor bottles on the top of the bar with a grunt. “That’s the last one in the back.”

“Can’t be—” His father flicked back another sheet on the clipboard in his hand. “Damn it. This is why you don’t leave idiots in charge.” Luke slapped it against Lucky’s chest. “Go double check Claude’s work so I can fire him when he gets in tonight.”

“You know, I don’t actually work for you,” Lucky said. “Make Claude do it—”

Luke scowled. “Everything has to be an argument with you—you asked to pick up a few hours—”

“Am I interrupting?”

The father and son turned to find Sonny Corinthos strolling towards them, his jacket over one arm. “Is this a bad time?” he asked again.

“Depends on if you and yours are planning to get my son wrapped up in another cop’s murder,” Luke replied.

“Well, if your son would just pick up a phone the next time his friend wakes up next to a dead body, we could avoid this whole mess,” Sonny said, smiling pleasantly, but his eyes flashed with irritation. “Any reason I didn’t get looped in even after you knew drugs were involved? Or after your girlfriend was slipped a roofie?”

Luke scowled, looked back at Lucky who dropped his gaze. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“Nothing. We were handling it,” Lucky muttered.

“Handling it? The way Jason tells it, if he hadn’t shown up, we’d be looking for another woman up in Canada,” Sonny retorted.

“You think I needed Jason to save the day? I had it under control,” Lucky retorted, taking a step towards Sonny, his chest puffed out. “He wanted to play hero so Elizabeth would be impressed.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll tell him the next time Elizabeth has a gun to her head, he should wait for you to finish negotiating,” Sonny said dryly.

“Go do inventory,” Luke told Lucky. “Or maybe we’ll fill your mother in on what you and your friends were up to—”

“I’m not a child. And you can’t tell me what to do. I was handling it.” Lucky slapped at the clipboard against his father’s chest. “I’ll find another job.”

Luke didn’t argue with him, just watched him storm out of the bar, then turned his attention back to Sonny. “I taught him better than that. You solve the problems you can on your own, and when you can’t you tap out. Dragging Elizabeth up there, no weapons, could have gotten them both killed.”

“One phone call to me, Luke, Elizabeth and Emily are out of this months ago, and I’d be that much closer to dealing with Sorel.” Sonny shook his head, then sighed. “I didn’t come here to fight, believe it or not.”

“No, but Lucky doesn’t need much inspiration these days. His temper—it’s always been easy to trigger, but ever since—” Luke opened the box of liquor Lucky had left on the bar, started to count out the bottles. “Ever since he came back, it’s been worse. I thought maybe when we snapped that old bitch’s hold on him last week, we’d start to see some improvement, but he just stopped spouting off that bullshit about Nikolas and Elizabeth.”

“You sure it’s, uh, all gone—” Sonny made a gesture with his fingers. “How can you really know?”

“I guess you can’t. And maybe it was too easy to end it,” Luke said. He let that thought sit for a moment — it was the first time he’d really confronted the possibility that the nightmare his family had faced with Lucky’s kidnapping and return might still not be at an end. “Why did you come in?”

“Wanted to make sure we’re, ah, okay. This thing with Smith — it’s brought the Sorel stuff to a head, and your place is on the border,” Sonny said. “I’m not as involved here as I used to be, and I’m not saying I wanna buy back my part—but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we made it clear who’s side you’re on.”

“My side,” Luke told him. “That’s the only side I care about.” He stopped. “But my side includes my people, and Sorel was a little too interested in Elizabeth last winter. You think he’s forgotten about her?”

“He was only interested in her because of Jason—” Sonny stopped. “And he’s going to be around. They’re still friends, you know. Is Lucky going to have an issue if I have one of my guys around, maybe at the diner or here? Keeping an eye on her?”

Luke lifted his brows. “Why would he care?”

“Were you listening?” Sonny demanded. “He feels threatened by Jason. Probably heard all those rumors last year and half believes them—”

“Rumors.” Luke snorted, shook his head. “Okay. Yeah, I know Elizabeth was looking after him because he got shot. But those rumors weren’t all smoke, Sonny. Were they?”

Sonny hesitated, then stroked his chin. “The worst of them were,” he said slowly. “She was looking after him because he got shot, and they fell into that cover story because Nikolas Cassadine has a big mouth. But yeah, I kind of think maybe it was something for a minute. But he left town. And Lucky came home. That’s done.”

Lucky came home. Luke looked back towards the entrance, then at Sonny. “Sure. Yeah. That’s over. Look, I don’t want to be on the front lines, but you know I’m with you. Sorel’s garbage. Eliminate him and take the territory. Let’s be done with this.”

Kelly’s: Dining Room

 

Every muscle in her body was screaming by the time the lunch rush thinned,  and Elizabeth eagerly snagged the bowl of chili she’d ordered for lunch and took one of the empty tables. She stretched out her feet, wiggling her toes inside her sneakers hoping to jolt some life back into them.

The bell over the door jingled when the spoon was halfway to her mouth, and Elizabeth nearly moaned in frustration which quickly melted to relief at the familiar sight of Chloe Morgan, the vivacious blonde who shared office space with Ned at L & B Records where Elizabeth had worked over the summer.

“Just the girl I wanted to see!” Chloe practically danced towards her, her eyes sparkling. She gestured at the chair across the table. “Do you mind?”

“As long as I don’t have to get up and can eat my lunch, sure.”

“No, of course, enjoy your lunch. This won’t take very long.” Chloe sat down, crossed her legs at the ankle. “I heard what happened last week! I’m so glad you and Emily are safe.”

Elizabeth hesitated, wondering if she was about to be gently reminded how reckless she’d been, but decided Chloe wouldn’t be the type to bother with that. “So am I.”

“Anyway, let me get straight to the point because you’re busy. My assistant, Lottie, is having her first child, and I am just so over the moon for her. She’s going to be on maternity leave in the next few weeks, and she’ll be gone for six months. I need someone temporary who’s quick on her feet, smart, and easy to work with. Ned suggested you, and I thought that was a brilliant idea since I know you’re an artist. It would be such a wonderful bonus to have someone who could sketch at my side.”

Elizabeth blinked at her. “What?”

“I know you’re thinking that you don’t know anything about the fashion business, but that’s my job! You’d just need to be my right hand, and keep track of details because I’m terrible it, and dash off sketches when I’m thinking out loud—I pay very well, and we’ll be traveling a lot, especially into the spring with the new lines premiering.”

“Traveling?” Elizabeth perked up. “What kind of traveling?”

“London, primarily. At first, and then, oh Paris for Fashion Week, and then New York for the Met Gala. And of course, Rome! Oh, it’ll be so much fun. You have a passport, don’t you?”

“I—I do not. I could get one. I can absolutely get one. I’ll start on that right away—Chloe, this—” She stopped, bit her lip. “But I can’t leave Tammy just yet. I’m only part-time, but—”

“Oh, of course—” Chloe waved her away. “You’ll give her notice, and Lottie isn’t leaving for three more weeks. You can shadow her when you’re not working here, and jump right in. You just get started on that passport. This is going to be amazing. You won’t regret it for a minute!”