Written in 60 minutes.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2000

Luke’s: Bar

Jason lifted the bottle to his mouth. “It’s exactly what I said,” he told Luke, then took a long pull from the bottle before setting it back on the bar. “We need to talk about something else—”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll get to all that.” Luke came around the bar properly, leaned down to grab a shot glass and a bottle from behind them. “Is Liz okay?”

Because Jason read the question as sincere, he answered. “As far as I know. But I haven’t seen her since she left the diner. You’ll have to take it up with her or Lucky if you want more—”

“I just don’t get it,” Luke muttered. He tossed back the alcohol, wincing slightly at the burn of the alcohol. “This isn’t him. This isn’t who he is. He doesn’t put his hands on women. He’s not—” He stared at the bottom of the empty shot glass. “He’s not that guy.”

Jason exhaled slowly. “I don’t think he intended for her to fall or lose her balance,” he said carefully, because it was true and a fair statement even it was physically painful to give the bastard any benefit of the doubt. “But she was trying to get away from him. I don’t know why.  If you want to know what happened before that—”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll—I’ll have to deal with it.” Luke made a face, rolled his shoulders. “Okay, talk to me. Why are you here?”

Charlie’s Pub: Dining Room

“You know, this place isn’t that bad.” Emily picked up the menu, flipped it open. “I always forget it’s here.” She looked across the table at Elizabeth, who was staring at the menu with more concentration than was required. “I guess we’re not going to back to Kelly’s for a while.”

“Or ever,” Elizabeth said with a sigh. She set the menu down, dragged a hand through her hair. “Tammy and I had some words after I gave my two week notice, so I wouldn’t trust any food I got anyway.”

“Oh. Well, that’s…” Emily blew out a rush of air. “I never liked her anyway.” She folded her arms on the table, leaned in. “How was the first day? Did you just love it?”

The waitress arrived, and they put in the orders. When she’d left, Elizabeth  unwrapped a straw, slid it in her water. “I did actually. I didn’t know if the assistant I’m replacing temporarily would be nice or not, but I liked her. I got to sit in on a fabric purchase meeting which sounds really boring, but you know, it wasn’t? They were debating chiffon or silk, and cotton blends—” She bit her lip, a h int of sparkle coming to her eyes. “I see your eyes glazing over. Anyway, it was a good day. It was exactly what I needed.”

“Good. I’m glad you took the job, that you started it, all of it.”

“Me, too. Hey, didn’t you have to meet with Dara today? How’d that go?”

Emily wrinkled her nose, then sighed. “I guess I can’t really avoid it, because we definitely have to talk about it. I don’t know what we expected, but Zander Smith is telling everyone we put the body in the trunk to frame him.”

Elizabeth pressed her lips together, set her water on the table very carefully. “What did Dara think about that?”

“She doesn’t seem to believe it,” Emily answered, “but she’s worried they’ll throw out the murder charge, and then it comes down to just the kidnapping. I have to testify at a hearing. I’m…concerned,” she added, “because you know….there’s perjury and everything.”

Elizabeth leaned in, lowered her voice. “You think he…has something to support his side of it?”

“I don’t know how, but what…what if he tells people that, and then someone from the motel—” Emily fisted her hands in her lap. “I’m just afraid, Liz. I wanted it to all be over, you know? I was so stupid. From start to finish—it was my idea to go to that stupid rave, I got upset—”

“Because Juan’s a dirtbag—” Elizabeth shook her head. “Em, we’re in this together. Because we’ve taken every step together. Going to that rave. Everything that followed. We all agreed. Even if it turns out the plan was insane and never going to work.”

“I know, I just—” Emily chewed on her bottom lip. “It just all seems so impossible. A week ago, I was home, and it seemed like it was over. And we were all happy, planning the next chapter. Now…it’s all back on the table, and it feels like we’re all so far apart—and I’m not blaming you—” she hurried to add when Elizabeth looked away, out the window of the pub. “Liz, I’m not—”

“I know. But there’s a reason you’re telling me one-on-one, isn’t there?” she asked Emily. “Because right now, it’s not like I can be in a room with Lucky. Or want to be.”

“The reason is you’re my best friend, and you’re the one I want to go to when I have a problem,” Emily said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this mess is that loyalty should only go so far. I let Lucky run the show this summer because I thought he needed to. And because I’d always been able to rely on him. I didn’t pay attention to what he was saying or why. I just wanted it all to go away, and Lucky made me believe it could. He was my first friend here. He stuck with me when a lot of people didn’t. And he didn’t even blink when all that stuff with the photos started, you know? He just dove in to help. He was my first friend,” Emily repeated, “and I thought that had to count for something.”

“I know—”

“But he didn’t listen. And he couldn’t admit that he didn’t have all the answers. The second my brother came home, I should have ran to him. I should have asked Sonny for help. I didn’t—”

“Neither did I. We all agreed, Em,” Elizabeth repeated. “This isn’t just on you. I agreed to the plan. Because…you’re right. Lucky needed to. He was almost…” She paused. “There were flashes of who he used to be, and I kept clinging to them. Kept thinking if I just stayed on his side, kept following his lead, he’d come back to me.” Her voice faltered, and she swallowed hard. “And then he did. And for a magical few days, you’re right. It was like the sun was shining again, and we were all going to be happy.”

She swiped at an errant tear that escaped, then looked at Emily. “But it wasn’t real. It was always just a dream.”

Emily reached across the table, squeezed Elizabeth’s hand. “We’re going to get through this, Liz. You and me. You’re my best friend, and I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Elizabeth cleared her throat, sipped her water. “Okay. So what do we do? How do we fix this?”

Kelly’s Diner: Lucky’s Room

Lucky grimaced when he opened his door to find his brother on the other side. “You here to yell at me, too?”

Nikolas lifted his brows. “That depends on what you did. Mom called me,” he added, “and it was all I could to do convince her that confronting you was the last thing that would work, that she should let me handle it.” He gestured past Lucky. “Are you going to let me in, or—”

Lucky rolled his eyes, but stepped back. “Thanks. For getting her back off.”

“It’s temporary,” Nikolas warned him. He swept his eyes over the room, then came back to look at Lucky. “You look like hell.”

Suddenly very aware of the fact that he hadn’t showered or changed in the last two days, Lucky scowled. He crossed to his dresser, yanked out jeans and a shirt, then went into the tiny bathroom that could barely fit the shower stall, sink, and toilet. He switched on the hot water. “Look, if you want to tell me I’m an asshole, it’ll have to wait.”

He closed the door, shed his clothes, then got in the shower. A moment later, he felt some of the steam dissipate and realized the door had opened. “Dude.”

“Dude,” Nikolas repeated in a mocking tone. “You’re not getting out this that easy. Everyone’s saying you shoved Elizabeth down the stairs. I called Emily last night, and she said she’s not really sure what happened — but that Elizabeth almost fell because you grabbed her. Do I at least have that part straight?”

Lucky squeezed shampoo in his hair, scrubbed it into his hair. “It was an accident.”

“I’m sure it was.”

Lucky peeled back the curtain slightly, glaring at his brother leaning in the doorframe. “Don’t say it that way. It was.”

“Then how did you accidentally grab her? And why?”

Lucky put his head back under the spray, letting the scalding water rinse the suds, the steam almost painful. “We had a fight,” but this came out on a mutter that couldn’t have been heard, and Lucky knew it wouldn’t be enough to satisfy his brother.

It wasn’t enough for what he’d done.”

He put his hand out of the stall. “Give me the towel and get out to let me get dressed.”

When he emerged from the bathroom, clean and in fresh clothes, hair hair laying damp at his temples, Nikolas was waiting for him, standing at the windows that looked over the parking lot.

“It’s like standing outside of myself,” Lucky told him. “I can tell you what happened. I can tell you the facts, but I can’t—” He shook his head, grimaced again. “I can’t tell you why. Because I don’t understand it. I—she was packing her things.”

“Emily said Elizabeth’s starting a job with Chloe.” Nikolas tipped his head to the side. “It’s an amazing opportunity for her. I think we can both agree that she’s outgrown being a waitress, and it’s a way to put her skills and artistic eye to good use.”

“I—” Lucky sat on the edge of the bed. “She told me about it,” he said, “and I…told her not to do it. I guess. Not in those words exactly,” he added, “but I told her we just got back together, and she was gonna take this job where she’d be travel and working long hours—”

“And not living next door or working downstairs,” Nikolas finished. He folded his arms. “Not accessible to you at all hours.”

“That’s—” True. And awful. “Yes.” Lucky looked at his brother. “And maybe we would have been able to get past that, because I was an asshole, and I can admit it. But it took this turn, and I don’t know how we got there, but we did—”

He looked down at the floor, stared hard at the thin carpet. “She told me she wanted to take this job because she used to like fashion. Was really into clothing and all that. Before. She lost that. And she wanted it back.” He exhaled slowly. “She wanted it back,” he repeated.

Nikolas frowned. “Not really seeing the problem—”

Lucky lifted his gaze back to his brother. “She said something about me not knowing about that, about not really knowing her before. She’s right. I didn’t. I knew she hated her sister. I knew she was a brat and selfish. But that’s it. She was reckless, and impulsive, and it blew up in her face all the time.” He raked a hand through his damp hair. “I said something stupid about there not being anything worth knowing, and yeah,” he said, gesturing at Nikolas. “That’s basically the way my dad looked when I told him that.”

“You’re a fucking moron.”

“She just took it too far, and all the wrong way, okay? I just meant that she was immature before—”

“And she’s mature now?” Nikolas demanded. “So, what, she needed to be raped so she’d mature enough for you?”

“Don’t—don’t act like that’s what I’m saying. I’m not,” Lucky retorted, lunging to his feet. “I’m not saying I love because she was raped. That’s disgusting. I’m not like that. But it changed her, okay? And I’m not going to pretend it didn’t. Because she’s not like that anymore. She’s kind, and generous. And compassionate—”

“And she might have been all those things before that night, Lucky, but neither of us took the time to get to know her, did we? We just saw her through Sarah’s eyes,” Nikolas retorted. “Not taking the time to get to know her is one thing, and admitting that is fair. But telling her that she’s only worth knowing because she got raped?”

“It’s not what I said—”

“But it’s how it sounds. And it sounds that way to everyone but you, Lucky, so maybe you should think about that.” Nikolas scowled, shook his head. “So you tell her this colossally stupid thing, and she decides to break up with you, packs her things, and she’s leaving, and you grab her to stop—”

“I grabbed her bag,” Lucky interrupted.

“That was attached to her body,” Nikolas shot back. “You moron.”

“Look, I get that — it was an accident! I’d never hurt Elizabeth! Stop acting like I’m some kind of abusive asshole. That’s not me. I’m not my father.” Lucky swallowed. “I’m not my father. I won’t be. So I have to find a way to fix this. And I will. Fix this. You have to help me fix this.” When Nikolas just looked skeptical, Lucky forced himself to say it again. “Please.”

Nikolas rolled his eyes. “Look, I’ll see if we can make this better, but fixing it? You better hope Elizabeth is a lot more kind and generous than I would be.”

“She is. You’ll see. I’ll make this up to her, and it’ll all be like it was before. You’ll see.”

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