Succumbing to the Pressure - 11

Emily left Lucky’s house late that night.  After he had calmed down they had talked forever, reminicing about the “good ‘ole days,” when they had run away together.  She had been able to convince him to talk to Nicholas, but he still insisted that Liz had betrayed him.  “One day he’ll relaize that she was right to tell her.”  Emily told herself, hoping she was right, but realizing that he was so stubborn that he may never.  She walked to Ned’s house.  That was where Nicholas had been staying.  Since Lucky wouldn’t talk to him he didn’t think he welcome there anymore.  She opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks.
 “Oh, Emily, hey, hold on, let me put a shirt on.”  Nicholas didn’t look the slightest bit bothered that Emily had seen him shirtless.  All he had been wearing was an old beat up pair of flannel pajama pants Ned had given him.  Oh my God, did he look HOT!  Not that the tight gray shirt he put on left any thing to be imagined.  She could still see his taught muscular physique underneath it.  He came over and hugged her.  “Hey,” he whispered softly into her ear.  She just about fell over.
 Ever since Luke had been in the hospital she had been so worried about him, and about Lucky, and comforting Liz, and even sometimes Nicholas, she had just about forgotten about her crush on Nicholas.  Until now.  Now that she was relaxed, and knew that Lucky would be okay, her crush came back, full force.  “Uh, hey Nick.”  She finally mumbled.
 Nicholas sat down, taking her hand in his and pulling her down next to him.  ‘God, she’s so beautiful,’  he thought to himself.  Outloud he said, “So, did Jason let you see Lucky?”
 Emily shook her thoughts of Nicholas out of her head.  “Oh, no, I snuck up.”
 “How was he?”
 “God, he looked awful.”  Emily relaxed, feeling once again comfortable with Nicholas.
 “So…How did it go Em?”  He looked at her, his worry for Lucky apparent.  Emily took his hands in hers and smiled.
 “He’s gonna be okay.  At first he would talk.  He just yelled, he was pretty sloppy..”
 “Sloppy?”
 “Yeah, that means really drunk.  Anyhow, so I yelled back at him, and finally he realized I was right.  I made him see that his friends care about him and worry.”  Emily sank back on the couch, closing her eyes and pulling her hair off her neck.
 Nicholas fought the urge to touch her.  “So, do you think he’ll talk to me?”  He said, his thoughts returning to his brother.
 She opened her eyes at him, her breath catching at how beautiful he was.  Some guys are cute, some are fine, some are down right beautiful.  Nicholas was beautiful.  His face, so contoured and perfect skin, his arms, muscular but not too much, his…She noticed that he was looking at her expectantly.  “Oh!  Sorry, zoned out.  Yeah, he will, but let him come to you, ‘kay?”
 Nicholas crossed his arms and felt defeated.  He felt overwhelmed by emotions.  Relief that Emily thought he would be okay.  Happiness that he would talk to him.  Apprehension that Lucky would actually come to him.  He was so confused.  “Em, he won’t.  He won’t come to me, and you know it.”  He let a tear fall out.
 She wiped it away.  ‘I love you Nicholas.” She thought.  “He will.  He promised.  He’s not mad at you.  It’s just that, well, when my Mom died, I felt like if I let anyone close again, they’d only hurt me or leave me…” She swallowed away the sadness she always felt when she talked about her mom.  Nicholas stroked her cheek.  “And, I think that’s what Lucky’s doing.  But… I think he listened to me.  I would hate for him to feel as alone and horrible as I did those first few months.”  Her voice shook with emotion.
 Nicholas felt another emotion creep past those other confused ones.  But this one wasn’t confused.  Love.  He loved Emily.  He didn’t know how, or when, it happened, but somehow, he had fallen in love with her.  He cupped her face in his hands, and surprised himself.  “I love you Em.”  He surprised himself so much that he jumped back and almost fell off the couch.
 Emily shook her head in shock.  She could have just heard that.  No way!  “Nicholas, did you just say…”
 Nicholas recovered himself.  “Yeah, I did.”
 “So you… did you mean it?”  She whispered, afraid of the answer.
 Nicholas looked at her and couldn’t hide it any more.  He cupped her chin once again.  He smiled.  “Yeah, Emily.  I have no idea when, or how, but I do.  I just do.”  He lowered his voice so  that only she could hear him.  “I love you Emily Quartermaine.”
 Emily felt tears spring to her eyes.  “I…I love you too Nicholas.”  He brought his face down to hers and kissed her tenderly and lovingly.  They were swept away in the moment and didn’t even notice someone come down stairs.  Nor did they hear him.
“Well, well, it’s about time!”  Ned said, smiling brightly and heading back up the stairs.
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 Lucky sat in the chair next to his father’s hospital bed.  “Well Dad, all that teaching how to sneak around pays off, you have no idea how hard it is to sneak into a hospital your Aunt works in!”  He laughed.  “So, I guess everybody’s been telling you how horrible I’ve been.  Well, they were right.  But, Emily, remember her?  Emily made me realize that I was wrong.  She helped me to stop.”
 “Thank God.”
 “Dad?!”  Lucky about jumped out of his skin.
 “Woah Cowboy, am I awake.   Is that really you and am I really talking, outloud?”  Luke sat up in bed.  He grabbed his son’s hand.
 Lucky felt tears fall down his face.  “Dad, you’re okay, you’re okay!”  He lunged at his dad and hugged him fiercely.  Luke hugged him back.  ‘Yeah, I’m okay Cowboy, I’m okay.’
 “Listen son, there’s somethin’ I gotta tell you.”
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 We see the blond girl in a gas station bathroom, combing her wet hair.  She fixed her make up and pulled on a beautiful green sweater.  She looked in the mirror.  She smiled ruefully at her tired reflecton.  She’d been driving for three days straight, with no sleep.  “Port Charles here I come!”  Then she turned and left.

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