"Reclaiming Forever" Part 16

Lorna straightened from where she had her ear pressed to the door of the storeroom of The Paradise. "Well, they're not yelling," she said. "That's good, right?"

"I think it's very promising," Paulina replied in an effort to reassure Lorna.

"I only ever saw them argue once," Lorna continued. She appeared to be looking off into the distance, and her eyes looked sad and far-off at the same time. "And that was bad. Maybe it would be better if they were yelling like that. I don't know."

"They needed to talk," Frankie said, and Lorna returned to the present and looked at Frankie, standing next to Cass. "You've given them that chance, Lorna."

Lorna turned to look at the closed door once more, as Frankie and Cass, and Paulina and Iris, exchanged looks. "I just hope it's enough," she said. "I just hope that it's enough."
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Inside the storeroom, Felicia and Luke were looking at each other intently. "Fanny--" Luke began.

But Felicia cut him off. "No, Luke. It's true. I'm a drunk."

"Stop saying that!" Luke exclaimed. "You are NOT a drunk, Fanny!"

"I'm an alcoholic," Felicia replied. "It's the truth, Luke." She looked down for a second, but then she looked at Luke again, defiance glowing in her eyes. "You always thought I was so strong, such a survivor."

"You are!" Luke insisted.

"No, I'm not! After I thought you died, I crawled into a bottle and I wanted to just stay there!" Felicia exclaimed. "I wanted to die! I almost did, more than once. And I hurt everyone who was still left who still loved me--Lorna, Jenna, Dean, Cass, Frankie, Rachel. I lost my talk show. I lost my contact with Cory Publishing. I couldn't help Jenna when she was losing our first grandchild because I was too drunk. Lorna and Cass and Rachel, they hosted an intervention for me, and all I did was lash out at each of them. Especially Lorna. She told me that my drinking was breaking her father's heart because I had said that she had your heart. She reminds me so much of you, Luke. She always has. Would a woman who was strong and who was a survivor become a lousy, stinking drunk?"

"If she did, then she would find the strength and the courage to get the help she needed, and to mend fences with everyone she hurt, and that's what you did, isn't it?" Luke asked.

"Yes," Felicia replied, "but--"

Now it was Luke who cut her off by gently touching his fingertips to her lips. "No 'buts,' Fanny," he said. "You did it. You ARE strong, you ARE a survivor. If you weren't, you wouldn't have made it through that."

"You already knew?" Felicia asked as the realization dawned on her.

"If anyone is to blame here, Fanny, it's me. You started drinking because you thought I was dead," Luke insisted.

"I knew it! I KNEW you would blame yourself!" Felicia exclaimed. "It is NOT your fault, Luke! I was the one who was weak! I was the one who couldn't handle life without...without anesthesia! I had choices to make, and I made the wrong ones!" Felicia stopped, paused, and then spoke again. "This is crazy! I'm blaming myself, you're blaming yourself, but that isn't going to change anything, Luke!"

"Well, I don't blame you, Fanny!"

"And I don't blame you, Luke. It just...It was what it was, and we can't change the past."

"No. No, we can't." Luke looked at her intently. "But I want to make up for it, Fanny. I want to make up for the lost time with you and our daughters, and I want to go on from here together. If you'll let me. If you still love me, I mean."

"You idiot," Felicia replied, but with a smile on her face and no anger. "IF' I still love you'? I know you don't like hearing my romantic past in between when we were kids and when we found each other again, but I did have three divorces and one period of widowhood before you, Luke Castigliano, and the only one of those men that I could never truly live happily without was you. It was always you, and it always WILL be you. 'IF I still love you'? I can't tell my lungs to stop breathing in and out. I can't tell my heart to stop beating. And I can't live and NOT love you. And you said that's why you came back: to reclaim your forever with me."

" That's right, I did," Luke replied. Then he asked, "How's the foot?"

Felicia blinked, confused. She had to stop and think, because during her whole emotional conversation with Luke, she hadn't given even a passing thought to her injured foot. "Better," she replied.

"Good," Luke replied, moving to Felicia's feet and gently lifting her foot to lift his jacket. Once he had her foot stretched out on the floor again, he began fumbling in the pockets of the jacket. "This is the last time I'm going to do this," he said as he searched the pockets, "and I'm going to do it right." He removed his wallet from the inside pocket of the jacket, opened it, and, as Felicia watched, unzipped a hidden compartment. Luke removed something from the hidden compartment, but Felicia didn't catch what it was; she did, however, notice that the corner of what looked like a photograph was sticking up out of the compartment when Luke laid it and his jacket aside.

"Fanny Grady," Luke began. He got up on one knee, and opened the hand he'd been holding closed to reveal the ring made from a cigar band that he had given Felicia on the night of their wedding...the same ring that she had slipped onto his finger in the hospital room before he had been taken away from her five long years before. "Felicia Gallant... Would you be my wife again?"

This time, the tears pooling in Felicia's eyes were tears of joy, and this time she didn't even try to hide them. "Oh, Luke," she breathed.

"Is that a yes?" Luke asked, holding the ring at the tip of her left ring finger.

Felicia nodded. "Yes," she whispered. "Oh, yes, that's a definite 'yes.'"

Luke slipped the ring onto Felicia's finger, and Felicia wasn't surprised when a tear fell from Luke's eye and splashed on the back of her hand. When he looked up from the ring into her beaming, teary-eyed face, she reached out and gently wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes. "I love you," she whispered, pulling him into her arms.

"I love you too," Luke whispered back as his arms went around her in the second before their lips met in a kiss that quickly turned into a series of kisses that released all of the pent-up love and longing for each other Felicia and Lucas had both carried in their souls for such a long time.
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The group gathered outside the storeroom door at The Paradise was so intently watching that door that none of them noticed when Jake McKinnon arrived and came in the back way, ducking behind the bar to pick up a bottle of pineapple juice. When he spotted his wife gathered with the group in the alcove, he smirked to himself, took a hefty swig of pineapple juice before setting the bottle on the bar, then sidled up behind Paulina and pinched her behind. Paulina, of course, jumped and yelped, "JAKE!"

Jake just smirked unrepentantly when Paulina turned to glare at him, and all of the others, except Lorna, who was still staring at the closed storeroom door, also turned to give him dirty looks. "What's with Lorna? Is she testing her x-ray vision?" he asked.

"Where is Mack?" Paulina asked her husband.

"He's at Rachel's," Jake replied. "She was thrilled to have some granny time, and I figured I'd surprise you and maybe we could steal a couple hours together before the dinner rush, but I guess that's out." Then he looked more closely at everyone gathered in the alcove. "The way you're all starin' at the door, you'd think somebody was locked inside." When Iris's jaw dropped at Jake's remark, Jake's smirk returned and he realized he was onto something. "You mean you DO have someone locked in there?" he exclaimed, amused. "Oh, this I gotta see!" He snaked the key from Paulina's pocket and pushed through the crowd to the door.

Lorna finally acknowledged Jake when he tried to elbow her aside to open the door. "And just what do you think you're doing?" she asked him.

"I'm gonna find out who you've got locked up in there," Jake replied as he moved to fit the key into the lock.

"You touch that door, and I'll drop you where you stand," Lorna warned Jake.

Cass checked his watch. "Lorna, it's been almost three hours," he said, looking from his watch to her. "We have to open the door sometime."

"But what if it hasn't been long enough?" Lorna wondered.

"You gave them the chance to talk," Frankie added. "The rest is up to them."

"Frankie's right," Iris chimed in. "We can't stay out here forever, any more than they can stay in there forever."

"Well--" Lorna began, but before she could say anything more, Jake shoved the key into the door, twisted it, opened the door, and stepped into the doorway of the storeroom.

Felicia and Lucas were lying on the floor in each other's arms, their clothing rumpled, kissing passionately.

"I'm sorry! Should I come back later?" Jake asked loudly. Felicia and Lucas, startled, jerked apart, looked at Jake, looked at each other, looked back at Jake, and then slowly sat up.

"Jake?" Felicia asked, puzzled as to why he was the one standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Felicia," Jake replied with a grin. "Lucas. That shade of lipstick is you, man. It really is." His smirk returned after this comment.

Luke wiped at his mouth then asked, "Is our oldest daughter out there somewhere?"

"I believe I saw her, yes," Jake replied. Then he looked over his shoulder and called, "Oh, Lorna! Your parents would like to have a word with you!"

"You'll pay for this, McKinnon," Lorna gritted out through clenched teeth.

"Fanny, can you stand?" Luke asked as he got up and then held out a hand to help her to her feet.

Felicia gingerly tested her weight on her injured foot. "I--I think so," she said. "But I'm not putting those shoes on again."

"I'll carry you to the car," Luke replied as he slipped his sports jacket on again. Then he smiled. "It's good practice."

Felicia and Luke emerged from the storeroom of the Paradise to find Lorna standing in front of a group of their friends and family that included Cass and Frankie, Iris, Paulina and Jake. Lorna put on her best smile as she greeted her parents, "Hi, Mom, hi, Daddy."

"Is that ALL you have to say to us?" Felicia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lorna sighed. "All right, look, before you say anything else, this whole thing was my idea," she began. "They," she gestured to the others, "only went along with it because I couldn't pull it off by myself and they care about you too." She ran a hand through her hair, brushing her bangs off her forehead. "The two of you are so damned stubborn! It's no wonder I'm so stubborn, I got a double dose of it coded into my DNA from the two of you. You needed to talk, and you weren't doing it on your own, so yes, I barged in and arranged for the two of you to be locked in the storeroom there so you would have no other choice but to talk to each other. But if you're going to get mad and yell at anybody, get mad and yell at me, because I'm the one truly responsible for this. Leave Cass and Frankie and the others out of it."

"Awww, even me?" Jake asked. "OW! PAULINA!"

"If you don't shut up right now, I'll stomp on your other foot!" Paulina warned her husband.

Felicia and Luke looked at each other. "She thinks we're mad," Luke said. "Are you mad?"

"I'm not mad," Felicia replied. "Are you mad?"

"No," Luke said.

Lorna dropped her hands to her sides and her face shone with hope. "You're not mad!" she exclaimed as it hit her all at once. "Does that mean..." She trailed off, and her eyes lit up even more when she noticed something else. "You have your arms around each other!" she exclaimed, pointing at her parents. "You're standing...You...You're..." She swallowed hard and then said, "Please tell me this means what I think it means."

"What do you think it means?" Luke asked.

"Daddy!" Lorna exclaimed, exasperated. "Come on. I need to hear you say it. One of you, both of you, somebody say it. Please."

Luke and Felicia looked at each other and then looked at Lorna, who was looking at both of them with such hope and such fear mingled together in her entire being, radiating from her in waves.

"Your father and I are back together," Felicia replied.

Lorna's hands flew to her mouth, and Felicia and Lucas were both startled when tears began streaming down her cheeks. "Lorna?" Luke asked anxiously.

Lorna took her hands from her mouth and shook her head. "I'm fine," she said shakily. "I'm fine. This...I've waited my whole life for this. My mom and dad are together!" Unable to restrain herself any longer, Lorna flew at her parents and hugged them at the same time, one arm around Luke, the other around Felicia. They each hugged her back with one arm and looked at each other behind her, wondering if they would have to peel her off the ceiling when she learned they were getting married again.

Jenna, Dean, and little Lucas arrived at the Paradise then, and little Lucas spied Felicia, Luke, and Lorna first. "They're here, they're here!" he exclaimed from his perch on his father's shoulders.

"Where?" Jenna asked.

"Maybe we should call you 'Eagle Eyes' instead of 'Little Man,'" Dean said. "They're over there, Jen." Dean gestured with one hand, keeping a tight grip on little Lucas with his other hand. "Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," Jenna replied. She headed toward the group gathered in the alcove in front of the open storeroom door, Dean and little Lucas following after her. She wondered for a moment why both of her parents were hugging Lorna at the same time, but she also knew that she would lose her nerve if she didn't say what she needed to say to Lucas. "Is this a private party, or do you have room for three more?" Jenna asked by way of greeting.

Everyone turned to look at Jenna, Dean and little Lucas. "Jenna," Luke said. He and Felicia released Lorna, who swiped at her eyes before turning around to face the rest of her family.

"Before you say anything, I need to say something to you," Jenna replied.

"Jenna--" Lorna began.

"Lorna, let your sister have her say," Luke said, not taking his eyes off Jenna.

"But Daddy..." Lorna said. She then looked to Jenna, and it was the first time Jenna could ever remember seeing a look of pleading on Lorna's face.

"Lorna, trust me," Jenna said. "I really...I need to say this before I lose my nerve."

Felicia squeezed Lorna's shoulder, then looked to Jenna. "Go ahead, Jenna," Felicia said, letting her hand rest on Lorna's shoulder.

Dean and little Lucas stood behind her, and Felicia and Lorna stood behind and to the side of Luke, with Cass and Frankie, Iris, and Paulina and Jake forming a loose circle around the family.

Jenna focused in on her father, took a deep breath, and began. "When you first came back, I couldn't get past the fact that you had left. I didn't take the time to think about why you left. I accused you of abandoning me like Gloria did." She paused, and then met Luke's gaze. "But I was wrong. I know that you love me...and Mom, and Lorna. I believed that Gloria loved me because she was my birth mother, but giving birth to a child doesn't automatically make you a good parent. Gloria did what she thought was best for me. And I can't regret it, because if she hadn't left me to be raised at the convent, then I wouldn't have ended up with you and Felicia for parents when she died. You and Felicia are my true parents.

"You had a good reason for leaving. You never would have left us if there was any other way for you to keep us safe. I understand that now. You left because you loved us, not because you didn't," Jenna concluded. "We can't do anything about the last five years. But you're my dad. You're the only dad I'll ever have. And I know that we can work this out. That is, if you still want to."

"Of course I still want to," Luke said.

Jenna closed the distance between herself and Luke and then stretched up on her tiptoes and hugged him. Luke wrapped his arms around and hugged her back.

Jenna turned her head and rested her cheek against Luke's shoulder. "Oh, you dropped this," she said, releasing her father and bending to pick up his wallet. She noticed the piece of paper sticking out and opened the wallet to tuck it back into its place, but she stopped short when she saw just what the piece of paper was. She gasped softly, then looked from the piece of paper to Luke. Then, as she began to cry much as Lorna had earlier, she threw her arms around Luke and hugged him again.

The others exchanged puzzled looks. "Jenna?" Dean asked. "What is it?"

Jenna released Luke again and then returned to Dean's side, still holding Luke's wallet. "Dean, look," she said as she held the open wallet out to her husband so he could see the piece of paper sticking out of it.

"That's our wedding picture...the one that was in Rolling Stone," Dean said.

"You had it laminated," Jenna said. "You've had this in your wallet all this time?"

"It was as close to my family as I could get," Lucas replied.

"But weren't you taking a big risk, carrying it around like this?" Jenna asks. "You weren't supposed to have anything on you that identified you as Lucas, were you?"

"It was the only way I could see you. All of you," Lucas replies, looking around. "That made it worth any risk. That picture is all I had of you and your mother and your sister for so long. I had to give you up, but I still kept you with me. The picture was a concrete reminder."

"But you could have been found out at any time, like if somebody stole your wallet," Dean said. "How would you have explained the picture?"

"I'm Dean Frame's biggest fan of...let's say a certain age," Lucas replied.

Jenna was trying not to sob now. "You saved this," she said, "and you carried it with you all these years."

"It's part of the promise I made to myself, that I would come home to all of you someday," Lucas replied. "You were a beautiful bride, Jenna. And I'm sorry I wasn't there to walk you down the aisle. I'm sorry for everything I missed, everything I did that hurt you, even though I didn't want it to. You and your mother and your sister...It was the three of you that kept me going while I was gone, and the three of you are why I was so determined to make it home as soon as I could."

"Oh, Daddy," Jenna says. Then Luke opened his arms with a hopeful expression on his face, and Jenna, smiling through her tears, flew into her father's arms and hugged him fiercely. He returned the hug and then looked to Felicia and Lorna. Felicia joined Luke and Jenna's hug, and then held out an arm out to Lorna, who joined her parents and sister in the hug.

"I don't think this day could possibly get any better," Lorna said.

"Oh, I think it could," Luke replied as they broke the hug.

"How?" Lorna asked.

Wordlessly Felicia held up her left hand. When Lorna and Jenna saw the ring on her finger, they let out twin shrieks at the tops of their lungs.

"You're getting married again?" Lorna asked.

"We're getting married again," Felicia replied, "and you're all invited!"

"Technically, since Lucas isn't dead, and you never got divorced, you're still married," Cass piped up. At the 'you've-GOT-be-kidding; you're-going-into-lawyer-mode-NOW?' look Frankie aimed in his direction, he hastily added, "But you can always renew your vows."

"Then we're renewing our vows, and you're all invited!" Luke exclaimed. Everyone milled around them, all talking at once.

"I missed your first wedding," Lorna said.

"Well, you're not missing this one," Felicia replied. "I can't very well get married without both of my matrons of honor there. What do you girls say? Will you stand up for me?"

"Try and stop me!" Lorna exclaimed.

"I'd love to!" Jenna exclaimed.

"Dean, would you be one of my best men?" Luke asked.

"I would be honored," Dean replied.

"Lorna, do you think Joe would be my other best man?" Luke asked Lorna.

"I'm going to call him right now and tell him to get over here, and you can ask him yourself, Daddy!" Lorna replied, digging her cell phone out of her purse and hitting the speed dial to reach Joe at the station house.

"What about me? What about me?" little Lucas asked.

"You can be the ringbearer, like you were for Auntie Lorna and Uncle Joe," Felicia told her grandson. "How would that be?"

"YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!" little Lucas cheered.

After returning her cell phone to her purse, Lorna shouted, "Okay, Joe will be here in 15 minutes! And everyone, thank you for helping me with this! I'd say we definitely succeeded!"

"Well, I think this calls for a celebration," Paulina said. "Everyone to the bar for sparkling grape juice on the house!"

As everyone began to adjourn from the alcove outside the storeroom to the bar, Felicia said, "Oh, Iris, could I talk to you for a moment, please?"

"Daddy?" Jenna called.

"Your mother and I will be right there. Pour a couple of glasses of sparkling grape juice for us," Luke said.

Soon only Luke, Felicia, and Iris remained in the alcove. "What is it, Felicia?" Iris asked. "It's bad form to keep a celebration in your honor waiting."

"I only have one question," Felicia replied. "Why?"

Iris's expression changed, became more serious, and more earnest than Felicia had seen in years. "Because I didn't want Lucas to live the rest of his life filled with regret for not being able to make up to the person...the people that he loves more than anything for the pain he caused you."

Felicia nodded. Luke looked back and forth between the two women, the one true love of his life, and his one-time fiancee and good friend both years ago and in the present. "He would be proud of you for doing this, Iris."

"I hope so," Iris said.

"I know so," Felicia replied firmly.

Anything else that might have been said was lost when Lorna and Jenna returned to the alcove. "Everybody's waiting for you two...three," Lorna hastily corrected herself. "We have a wedding--"

"Vow renewal, Lorna. A vow renewal," Jenna corrected. Lorna shot her sister a look. Jenna just smiled mischievously at Lorna.

"I'm surrounded by jokers," Lorna muttered. "Fine, we have a vow renewal to plan, and a lot to celebrate. Joe's here too. Are you going to join us at the bar, or are you going to stand here talking for the rest of the day?"

"We're right behind you," Felicia promised. She threaded her fingers through Luke's, and they followed Iris and their daughters to the bar at the Paradise to begin celebrating the reclaiming of their forever.

TO BE CONTINUED