Chapter Two
Brenda’s cottage

Brenda sat on the couch reading over some paper work for L&B.  She was beginning to think that it was time to get someone to help her, all the paper work was beginning pile up and there was no way she could keep up with it.  Brenda put the paperwork down and started to go through her mail.  In the mail were the tickets her and Jax had bought for the Nurse’s Ball, it was just a few weeks away.  Along with the tickets was a program of how would be performing; at the top of the list were Lucky Spencer and Elizabeth Webber.

Brenda jumped up and grabbed the phone.  Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier?  Of all the people she knew, he had to have one of the best minds of music, other then Ned that was.  But Ned was too busy with Brook Lyn and trying to win back Lois.  She had never seen him so intent on anything as long as she had known him.

Brenda dialed the number of Lucky’s apartment.

Lucky’s apartment

Lucky and Liz had just walked in the door.  The first thing Lucky did was headed right for his nightstand and pulled out a small velvet box.  “My grandmother gave this to me when we first started going out.  I guess she knew something that I didn’t,” Lucky opened the box and pulled out a small silver ring.  “It’s an Irish Wedding band, she said that it had been passed down through our family.  Here,” Lucky slipped the sing on her finger.  “Now it’s official, we are engaged.”

Liz looked down at the ring with tears in her eyes.  “Lucky, it’s beautiful, thank you,” She hugged him tightly and then kissed him.  She looked down at the ring again and studied the design.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”

“My grandmother told me that the design has a symbolic meaning, the hands stand for friendship, the heart for love and the crown for loyalty.”  He kissed her again.  The mood was broken when the phone rang.

“Forget about it, if it’s important they will call back.”  Lucky said kissing Liz again.

The phone continued to ring until the answering machine clicked on, “Hey Lucky, it’s me Brenda.  I need you to give me a call, it’s urgent…”

Lucky fearing the worst picked up the phone.  “Brenda, what’s wrong?”

“I knew you were home,” all urgency left her voice when Lucky picked up.  “Nothing’s wrong unless you call drowning in L&B work trouble.  I called because I need some help and you are the best person I could think of,” Brenda paused.  “Are you still interested in the music biz?”  Brenda asked hopefully.

“Yes, what are you getting at?”  Lucky asked suspiciously.  He hoped that Brenda wasn’t getting any of her hair brain ideas again.

“What would you think of if I offered you a job at L&B?  I’m dying here and I need some help.  So what do you say?  Would you come and work for me at L&B?”

Lucky smiled; could this day get any better?  “Let me think about it…umm…Yes of-course,” Lucky teased.  “When do you want me to start?”

“That’s wonderful!  I knew I could count on you!  Would next week be too soon?”  Lucky could practically hear Brenda jumping with excitement.

“Next week will be fine.  I’ll talk to you latter, okay?”

“Sure, see you next week, bye.”

“Bye, Brenda,” Lucky hung up the phone and let out a small chuckle.  “It looks like today is my day.”  He said to himself.

“What did Brenda want?  Is she okay?”  Liz said sitting down on his bed.

“Everything is fine.  In fact Brenda just asked me to work for her at L&B.”

“That’s great, but how are you going to run Kelly’s and work at L&B?”

“I don’t know, I’ll find a way.”

Back at Brenda’s cottage

Brenda pushed the pile of papers aside, they could weight till next week.  She was just dozing off when she heard someone at her door.  Thinking it was Erin, Brenda didn’t get up.

A tall blond man walked quietly up to the couch and placed and hand over Brenda’s eyes.

Brenda jumped sky high.  “Guess who.”

“Jax!”  Brenda jumped up and hugged her husband.

“Wow, if I knew leaving for a few days would get me this kind of reaction I’ll do it more often.”  Jax teased.

“Don’t you dare.  I want you here when this baby is born.”  Brenda retorted.

“I wouldn’t miss that for the world.  How was the wedding?”  Jax asked sitting down on the couch with Brenda.

“It was beautiful.  Robin had on the most amazing dress I’ve ever seen even Jason looked nice.  I swear I’ve never seen him smile that much. The ceremony was sweat, they wrote their own vows and afterward they had Lucky Spencer sing and…owe!”  Brenda grabbed her stomach in pain.

Jax jumped up.  “What?  What’s wrong?”

Brenda clenched her teeth and looked up at him.  “I think it’s time.”

“Time?  Time for what?” Jax said totally oblivious.  Brenda gave him ‘the look’.  Instantly he knew what she was talking about.  “Oh, okay.  Where is your bag?” 

Brenda pointed to the downstairs closet.  Brenda picked up the phone and dialed Erin’s pager while Jax pulled her packed overnight bag out of the closet.

Erin and Nik’s picnic

Erin felt her pager go off and looked down at it, it was the type where you could leave a massage on. “IT’S TIME” was what it said.  Erin jumped up and started to pack up the stuff.

“What’s wrong?” Nik asked worried.

“Brenda’s going into labor.”  Erin said breathlessly as she threw the last of the stuff in the basket.

Nik and Erin ran all the way back to the cabin.  They arrived just as Jax was pulling out of the driveway.  Erin found a note on the table.

 

Babe,

I don’t know if you got my message but if your reading this I’m on my way to the hospital.  Jax came home just in time, just like you said he would.

Brenda

 

Erin grabbed her keys and ran out to her car with Nik at her heals.  They jumped in and sped all the way to the hospital; lucky for them they didn’t run into any cops along the way.  They got to the hospital a few minutes after Jax.  A nurse was with her and they were getting her ready, so they couldn’t go in to see her.  Erin spotted Jax sitting in the weighting room.

“How is she?”  Erin asked Jax the moment she got to him.

“She’s doing fine.”  Jax said distracted.  His mind was not on talking to Erin; it was focused on him becoming a daddy.  For the first time in the whole pregnancy he was beginning to worry if he would be a good father and if he was ready for a kid.

Erin could tell that it was no use talking to him, he was just as nervous as she was.  Erin remembered what Brenda had told her about who to call when she went into the hospital.  First of the list was Ned and the second was Lois.  Easy, she could kill two birds with one stone.  Ned was with Lois.  Erin walked over to a quiet place and pulled out her cell phone and dialed Lois’ number.

“Hello?”

“Ned?  This is Erin, you and Lois need to get back here, Brenda is going into labor.”  Erin said matter-of-facly.

“What?  But she’s not due for another two weeks.  Are you sure this isn’t another false alarm?”  Ned asked.

“I have a feeling that it isn’t.”

“Okay, Lois and I are on the way.”  Ned hung up the phone and grabbed his coat.

“What is it?”  Lois asked concerned.  “Where are we going?”

“Port Charles, Brenda is going into labor.  Pack some stuff while I call and have the jet get ready.”  Lois was in action before Ned even had to say anything; they were back to working like clock work, just like the old days.

Before Ned even finished on the phone Lois had three bags packed, one fore her, one for Ned, and one for little BrokeLyn.  They were out the door without even a word.

Luke’s club

Lucky looked at Liz nervously before they entered.  It was noon so Luke’s had just opened so there wouldn’t be many people in there and it would be fairly empty.  Luke was standing at the bar cleaning.

“Hey cowboy what brings you here?”  Luke asked wiping down the counter.

“I-we have something to tell you.”

Luke raised and eyebrow, he never liked conversations that started out like that.  “And what would that be?”

Lucky glanced at Liz for reassurance, then he took deep breath.  By the look in his eyes Liz could tell that he was trying to come up with a way to tell his father.

“Maybe it would be easier if we just show him.” Liz told Lucky softly.

“Show me what?”  Luke asked, now totally confused, and not sure he wanted to know what they were going to tell him.

Lucky lifted up Liz’s had to show his father the wedding band around her finger.  Luke just stood there stunned.  He knew they were serious, but he had no idea that they were that serious.  “Does this mean what I think it means?”  Luke finally asked.

“We’re getting maried!”  Lucky and Liz said in unison.

Luke couldn’t contain his enthusiasm.  “Well congratulations!  Have you told you’re mother yet?”

“No, when I went home she wasn’t there.  I was hoping she would be here.”

“As a matter of fact she is here, she’s in the back room.”

“Thanx dad, we’ll be right back.”  Lucky grabbed Liz’s hand and rushed her into the back room to go find his mother.  Five minutes latter Luke heard squealing and laughter coming from the back room.  Laura came out beaming like a light bulb, and by the look on her face he could tell that she was just as excited for them as he was.

“Luke isn’t this the best news ever?”  Laura asked excited.

“You bet babe.  I think this calls for a celebration!  I say we through the biggest bash this town has ever seen.”  Luke said poring a drink for everyone.

“Sounds good to me, when?” Liz asked with a smile.

“How does tomorrow night sound?”

“That’s fine with me, how about you?”  Lucky asked looking at Liz.

“Nothing could sound better.”

“Then it’s all settled,” Luke clapped his hands together.  “I’ll get working on it right away.”

“Okay, could you excuse us, will still have to talk to a few more people.”  Lucky said steering Liz toward the door.

Liz and Lucky walked out the door to the car, a cold November wind blew causing Liz to shiver.  “Here.”  Lucky took off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

“Thank you,” Liz smiled up at Lucky.  “So who are these other people that we have to tell?”

“Well for starters your folks.  I think they should be let in on this little secret too, don’t you?  And then there is your grandmother, and you’ll have to get in touch with your sister,” Lucky paused a moment.  “Maybe we should hold off telling her for a wile, at least until we get totally settled.”

“That’s for sure.  I haven’t talked to her in the longest time.  It’s been almost a year sense I talked to her.”  Liz said with an obvious sigh of sadness.

“Didn’t you see her when you went to go see your folks?”

“No, not too long after she got there she met some rich guy and she took off with him to Europe.  It was months before my folks heard from her,” Liz looked up at the sky and tears began to gather in her eyes.  Lucky was about to speak when Liz cut him off.  “The reason I didn’t tell you was because I was still so mad at her that I really didn’t care if I ever saw her again.  I don’t understand what is going on with her.  She lost all touch with reality when you and I got together.  I don’t know what happened, she just snapped.  You remember what I was like when I first came to town?”  Lucky nodded with a half grin.  “Well she’s worse, much worse.  Last I heard she was into drinking and drugs…” Liz’s voice trailed off as she thought of her sister.

“Hey, don’t go there.  This is ment to be a happy day, remember?”  Lucky lifted her chin up to that she was looking at him, then he planted a kiss on her lips.

“Happy?  Hmm…I think I’m beginning to remember what that is, but could you give me a little bit more of a reminder.”  Liz teased.

“Oh really?  Well I think I just might do that,” Lucky leaned down and kissed her passionately on the lips, then down her neck to her collarbone.

“Before we got too carried away here,” Liz broke in with a laugh.  “we need to start getting in touch with all those people who are going to want to know,” Liz smiled sweetly as a thought accrued to her.  “How about we go back to my place and start on the phone calls, that way you can tell Rubby then she won’t give you those nasty looks anymore okay.”

“Whatever you say babe.”  Lucky placed an arm around Liz’s shoulder as they walked the rest of the way to the car.