Song Credit: Sometimes When We Touch by Dan Hill

 

July 21, 2003

The Queen of Angels Church

Elizabeth stared into the mirror, her arms folded tightly across the bodice of her white silk wedding gown.

She was standing in the bridal room of the Queen of Angels Church getting ready to marry Jason and she couldn’t think of something she wanted to do less. He wasn’t marrying her because he loved her and wanted to but because she’d gotten herself involved with Sonny’s psychotic half-brother and ended up pregnant.

Almost like some sort of twisted and warped fairy tale, Elizabeth mused, like it was a parallel universe. Carly Corinthos was her matron of honor rather than Emily, her best friend. Because Emily felt that this was Elizabeth’s fault. That she was going to hurt her brother all over again.

And because Elizabeth suspected in some way that Emily felt she deserved what was happening to her.

“She’s going to be stunned.”

Nikolas’s voice brought Elizabeth out of her thoughts. He must have been standing on the other side of the door, his voice was so close. And it was…she frowned. He sounded happy.

There was a knock then. “Come in,” Elizabeth called.

“Darlin, it’s Luke,” her stand-in father said, pushing the door open. He slipped inside and smiled brightly. “Well don’t you just look like an angel.”

Elizabeth flushed. “Hey, Luke, you look…” she paused and her smile matched his. “You look happy. Is there news about Laura?”

“Yeah, in fact…” Luke opened the door. “Angel?”

Laura Spencer entered then, tears in her eyes and a soft smile on her lips. “Hey. Is there room for a surprise guest?”

Elizabeth gasped and looked at Luke with questioning eyes. “How…?”

“She started to remember about two and a half weeks ago and over the last week, it’s all come back.” Luke gazed at his wife in pure adoration. “The doctors say she’s a miracle but I could have told them that twenty years ago.”

Laura laughed and touched his arm. “Okay, that’s enough. Go out there. I want to speak with Elizabeth alone.” She shooed him out and Laura turned to Elizabeth.

“It seems wrong to be so happy that my former fiancé’s mother is here but it just…” Elizabeth couldn’t speak but her shining eyes told Laura just how much she was needed here.

Laura came towards her and turned her around towards the mirror so that she was peering over the bride’s shoulder. “You are so very dear to me, Elizabeth. When Lucky was gone, you were all I had of him and you came to mean so much to me. I do look on you as a daughter and just because you aren’t with my son anymore…that doesn’t change the love I have for you.”

“You and Luke…you’re the parents I’ve always wanted, that I dreamed of,” Elizabeth whispered. She swallowed hard. “Ah, did Luke tell you what was going on?”

“Yeah,” Laura remarked wistfully. She adjusted the spaghetti straps of her wedding gown and tucked a errant curl behind Elizabeth’s ear. It had escaped from a very elegant updo that Carly had done earlier. “He tells me that you’re marrying the man you love because the man you were seeing has threatened you and your unborn child.”

“Did he mention that my best friend hates me?” Elizabeth asked tearfully. “That Jason’s in love with Sonny’s sister?”

“Yeah. He told me all of that.” Laura shrugged. “Details. Emily will get over herself and if you and Jason are meant to be together, you will be eventually.”

There was a knock on the door. “Mom, any time you two are ready,” Lucky called.

Elizabeth turned towards the door. “It all feels surreal,” she confessed. “I don’t…I don’t really know what I’m doing here.”

Laura reached into her purse and withdrew a velvet box. “Well, we’ll start with something new.”

Elizabeth took the box and slid it open to reveal a delicate heart charm on a long gold chain. “Oh, it’s so beautiful.” She took it out of the box and handed it to Laura. “Will you…?”

“Of course.” Laura draped the chain around her neck and fastened the clasp. “Well, I suppose we should get you married.”

“I suppose.” Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Laura?”

“Yes, honey?”

“I want you and Luke to walk me down the aisle.” She met her surrogate mother’s eyes. “Please.”

“I’d be very honored.”

——

The music began and Carly slowly moved down the aisle in a delicate gown designed to hide her bulging abdomen.

“Where’s Mom?” Lucky hissed to Nikolas. He craned his neck to get a look in the back and grinned. “Never mind. She’s back with my dad and Liz.”

“I can’t believe Mom’s here,” Nikolas said, shaking his head. “I mean, three weeks ago she was in Ferncliffe and now she’s waiting to walk down the aisle with your ex-girlfriend. Do we even live in the real world?”

“Probably not,” Lucky decided. He grinned as his cousin Michael walked proudly down the aisle with the pillow in his hands. The two brothers beamed with pride as their gorgeous little sister pranced happily down the aisle in her self-described fairy tale dress with pretty pink rose petals.

Elizabeth was sandwiched between the Spencers much to most of the crowd’s surprise. She had a smile on her face which most attributed to the presence of Laura Spencer.

When they reached the altar, Luke and Laura took their seats next to their family and Elizabeth hesitantly took Jason’s hand as they stepped up to the minister to be married.

The No Name

“Times like this, it sucks that I can’t drink,” Carly remarked later. She propped her aching feet up on Sonny’s lap. “I could use some sort of alcohol right now.”

Sonny managed a smirk and turned his dark eyes to scan the room. The reception was being held at the No Name, no surprise there and in attendance was every major mob family along the East Coast. And it was only those people who looked like they were even enjoying themselves.

He and Carly were seated at the wedding party table at the front of the room and he couldn’t spot a more depressed group of people—well except for his old friend Luke who seemed to have had new life breathed into him with the recovery of his ex-wife. Currently Laura had dragged him out to the dance floor. Michael was twirling around his cousin Lulu while he sat rubbing his pregnant wife’s feet and sitting next to his best friend who was well on his way towards being piss poor drunk.

“You might want to slow down a little,” Sonny said under his breath as Jason cracked open his fifth beer of the night.

“I’m fine,” Jason muttered. His eyes were trained on his new wife who was dancing with Nikolas Cassadine at the moment. She was smiling but it wasn’t a real smile and she wasn’t really happy.

Courtney had left for the island almost two weeks ago, her things were gone from his penthouse and all of Elizabeth’s had been moved in the day after she was gone. It was almost like he’d been transported back to last September or at least it had felt that way the first day Jason had walked in to see his penthouse decorated the way it had once been…with simple leather furniture, and wide open spaces. Not to mention Elizabeth’s favorite afghan draped on the couch and her shoes next to the stairs.

It unnerved him to find out that he preferred the penthouse to look simple rather than the overdone decorating that Courtney had done back in April and it even disturbed him that he was married to Elizabeth and would be living with her for the near future.

The past two weeks had passed in almost a strange blur. Emily and Elizabeth hadn’t made up—in fact, they’d continued to fight bitterly and even he could tell Elizabeth was stung by his sister’s behavior. She’d spent more time with Carly than he knew Courtney had been comfortable with—which is why the blonde had hastened her departure before Elizabeth could finish taking over her life, or so Courtney had told him the night she left.

“I never want to plan another wedding like this again,” Carly grumbled. “Why is it our weddings weren’t this complicated?”

“Because I didn’t care about pleasing the entire syndicate,” Sonny replied. “I didn’t think I had to. But the families dictated part of the guest list and arrangements had to be made.”

The song ended and Nikolas went to dance with his mother while Luke came over to their table, leaving Elizabeth with Lucky on the floor.

“Hey, Luke,” Sonny greeted. “It’s good to have Laura home, I’ll bet.”

Luke nodded. “She came at just the right time—Elizabeth really needed the extra support what with Emily turning into a normal Quartermaine and all.”

Jason scowled. “Watch it, Luke.”

The older man snorted. “Please. Like we all aren’t worried about that kid’s sanity. I don’t know where she gets off judging Elizabeth so harshly but she’d better tone it down. Elizabeth doesn’t need the stress.”

“What she doesn’t need is to be coddled like she’s some small child,” Carly snapped. “God I hate when people treat pregnant women like that. We’re not sick, we’re not dying, we’re furthering the human race so treat us like the goddesses we are or hit the road.”

“I’m not coddling her, I’m saying the obvious. Elizabeth is already in a high-stress situation,” Luke shot back. “You of all people know what going through a high-risk pregnancy is like, so take a chill pill.”

“She’s not high-risk,” Carly corrected, “but yes, she does have the potential to become that way and I do agree that if Emily’s going to be so angry with her that she needs to keep her distance.”

Not ready for his niece to be so agreeing, Luke shrugged. “Whatever. I’m gonna go find my sister and force her to dance with me.” He ambled off to track down Bobbie.

The song ended and instead of starting a new one, the DJ they’d hired came to the microphone. “I’ve been told that a friend of the groom’s wishes to speak,” he said.

Jason frowned and glanced at Sonny. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Sonny lowered Carly’s feet to the floor and stood up to scan the crowd. He saw Sammy Tagliatti making his way through the people and heading straight for Elizabeth and Lucky. “Okay, so it’s Tagliatti—” he turned back to Jason who had disappeared. Sonny focused on Elizabeth again and found his friend there.

—-

“Why is he coming over here?” Elizabeth whispered, holding Lucky’s arm tightly. She instinctively moved closer as the mob boss drew closer.

Just before Tagliatti reached them, Jason stepped up to them. “Why don’t you come back to the table?” he asked her.

Elizabeth nodded. “Okay.” He took her hand and started to lead her away but Tagliatti stepped in front of them.

“Ah, don’t hurry away so quickly.” The Italian smiled and Elizabeth automatically stepped behind her new husband. “I wish to congratulate you on your nuptials and I was just heading to make a speech in honor of this momentous occasion.”

Jason glanced around at all of the interested parties before turning a cold gaze on his rival. “Make it short,” he said through gritted teeth.

Tagliatti nodded and started walk past them. He looked at Elizabeth. “You are a beautiful bride. I only hope you remain so…full of life.”

The threat wasn’t lost on her and she stepped closer to Jason who glared at the mobster. “You’ve made your point,” Jason growled. “Go.”

Tagliatti nodded again and continued his trek towards the DJ’s booth. Jason gripped Elizabeth’s hand more tightly and returned to their table.

“Are you okay?” Sonny asked once they were seated. “What did he say?”

“Just some veiled threats,” Jason told him. He studied Tagliatti who’d taken the microphone and was clearing his throat. “He’s up to something.”

“I want to take this time and thank the happy couple for inviting myself and my family to this joyous occasion,” Tagliatti began with a charming smile. “Marriage is such a wonderful and very important step to take and it’s not a decision to make lightly.” He met Jason’s eyes and the smile would have sent chills down a normal person’s spine. “I hope that the two of you know what you’ve signed up for. Jason, you were blessed with a very beautiful young bride and I wish no harm come to her.” There was a pause. “Or you, of course,” Tagliatti added with a chuckle. “Congratulations.”

He handed the microphone back to the slightly bewildered DJ and took a moment to whisper something into his ear. The DJ nodded and Tagliatti started back to his own table.

“Mr. Tagliatti asks that the bride and groom take this time and grace us all with their first dance as man and wife,” the DJ said cheerfully. This wasn’t an unusual request in his line of business and he set out to find a romantic song since he hadn’t been given any instructions.

Elizabeth shook her head vehemently. “No.”

Sonny sighed and glanced at Jason. “You might as well. Tagliatti will answer for his behavior but there’s no need to make a scene.” He saw Elizabeth’s stricken look. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. But…let’s just get this day over with. It’s almost done.”

She closed her eyes and nodded. “Okay. I…okay.” Jason hadn’t relinquished her hand when they’d gotten back to the table so he pulled her to her feet and escorted her to the dance floor which had been cleared of guests.

The lights were dimmed and the first notes of the song echoed in the room as he led her to the center of the room and put his hands around her waist. She reluctantly put hers on his shoulders. The resulting pose was awkward and actually kind of stiff. She felt mortified.

You ask me if I love you
And I choke on my reply
I’d rather hurt you honestly
Than mislead you with a lie

“Why do we have to do this?” she asked softly, closing her eyes to hide the tears in them.

“He’s trying to prove a point,” Jason said quietly. He glanced around and saw some of the curious stares of people who didn’t realize this was a masquerade. He shifted his grip on her waist and drew her closer.

And who am I to judge you
On what you say or do?
I’m only just beginning to see the real you

“What point would that be? That we’re some puppets on a string?” she hissed. Following his lead, she moved her hands around his neck making the hold look a little less forced.

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty’s too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide

One of the guards slid a note across the table to Sonny before resuming his post at the corner of the table.

Sonny opened it and sighed as he read it. “Jesus Christ.”

Carly frowned and leaned towards him. “Baby? What’s going on?”

I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

Laura sighed sadly and rested her chin on Luke’s shoulder. “I feel so terrible for them both,” she said quietly.

Luke gripped her hand tightly. “I know. But they’ll find their way eventually. Whether it’s together or apart.”

Romance and all its strategy
Leaves me battling with my pride
But through the insecurity
Some tenderness survives

“Where’s Summer?” Nikolas asked Lucky. “She didn’t want to come?”

“I haven’t really seen a lot of her lately,” Lucky admitted. “I think we’re better off as friends.” He hesitated. “Did you talk to Emily?”

Nikolas nodded. “She decided not to come. Said that it was bad enough all they were doing was fighting—she didn’t want further problems by showing up here.”

“She made the right decision but still…” Lucky shrugged. “I can’t help but wonder what’s going through her mind sometimes. We should go over and talk to her after the reception.”

I’m just another writer
Still trapped within my truth
A hesitant prize fighter
Still trapped within my youth

“They want to renegotiate the deal,” Sonny hissed. He crumpled the note in his fist and stared down at the plate. “This is about the pregnancy. They think that Ric will get a hold of the baby somehow and raise it to be just like him and the thought scares them to death.”

Carly stared at him with wide eyes. “What do you think they want to do?”

Sonny glanced at her. “Well, Carly, in this business, you eliminate the threat. What do you think they want to do?”

Horrified, she gasped, covering it with her hand. “No, Sonny, no.”

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty’s too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide

“This is almost over,” he said to her, his mouth right next her ear, the warm breath fluttering over her skin.

“Nothing’s ever really over,” Elizabeth said without thinking. She glanced up to find him looking at her oddly. Before either of them could say anything, a tinkling sound echoed through the room.

I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

Daniel Vega leaned over. “What are you doing?” he hissed.

Tagliatti clinked his fork on his glass again and smiled. “Proving once and for all to Corinthos who is in charge here. They answer to us. Not the other way around. Now…follow my lead.”

He clicked it a third time and this time Daniel reluctantly joined in and soon the room was filled with the echoing sound.

At times I’d like to break you
And drive you to your knees
At times I’d like to break through
And hold you endlessly

Jason frowned and glanced around. “What are they doing?”

Stricken, Elizabeth’s skin was the color of snow and her eyes were wide with some sort of fear. She licked her lips nervously. “It’s like a wedding tradition. People—they do it and they expect the, ah, married couple to…” she trailed off and closed her eyes. “They expect them to kiss,” she finished flatly.

At times I understand you
And I know how hard you’ve tried
I’ve watched while love commands you
And I’ve watched love pass you by

Sonny glared furiously at the smiling Tagliatti. But Carly’s eyes were on the dumbstruck couple in the middle of the dance floor. They wouldn’t…

Would they?

At times I think we’re drifters
Still searching for a friend

Laura yanked on Luke’s arm to keep him seated and from attacking the five families and the death glare she sent to both of her sons kept seated as well. “Look, just…let them deal with this,” she hissed.

A brother or a sister
But then the passion flares again

“Jason,” Elizabeth said hesitantly. “What are we going to do? I mean…we can’t…”

He kept his grip tight on her, fearful she was about to bolt. “We…” he looked up at Sonny and saw the tense set of his friend’s shoulders. “I think we’re going to have to.”

“None of this was part of the agreement,” Elizabeth hissed.

And sometimes when we touch

“Sonny and I will deal with this afterwards,” he told her softly. He moved a hand to her chin so he could tip her face upwards. “I’m sorry…but it’s…not like we haven’t done this before right?”

She hated feeling like this—like her life was not hers to control and that she was someone who could be ordered around. Her eyes were open wide and so were his and they could both see the reluctance in each other’s gazes.

The honesty’s too much

“He’s gonna do it,” Carly muttered, twisting her napkin tightly in her hands before shooting an incredibly nasty look at Sammy Tagliatti for putting her friend in this situation. That low down dirty no good rotten…

And I have to close my eyes and hide

He finally decided to just get it over with and he closed the short distance between them with what he had already decided would be a short brush of their lips.

But he’d forgotten how she’d tasted and once his mouth settled over hers, he let himself remember—just for a moment—what it was like. He slid a hand over her cheek and tilted her head up even further.

I wanna hold you til I die

She moaned—just the tiniest one really and he instinctively slid his tongue into her mouth, taking advantage of the moment. Her eyes fluttered shut in surprise and his soon followed suit.

He drew away after another moment to look at her with shock that was only too clearly mirrored in her eyes as well.

Til we both break down and cry

“Ah, hell,” Carly muttered. She dropped the napkin on her plate and put her head in her hands. “Sonny, please tell I did not just see that.”

Sonny cleared his throat and met his wife’s eyes. “You weren’t imagining it. It happened. The only thing that remains to be seen is exactly what in the hell it was.”

The song was coming to an end but the couple wouldn’t move from their shell shocked place on the floor.

I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

Sammy Tagliatti sat back in his chair, smiling like the cat that ate the canary.

It was almost too easy, really.

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