Fic: Looking for a Lifetime (GH, Nikolas/Elizabeth, Audrey, Lanaverse)
Title: Looking for a Lifetime
Author: empressearwig
Prompt: 78 - Paris
Pairing/Character(s): Audrey, Nikolas/Elizabeth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Any character first appearing on GH does not belong to me. All original creations do.
Word Count: 1622
Spoilers/Warnings: Part of the Lanaverse.
Summary: “We got married because of Audrey. Our marriage has always been about our children, and now they’re all grown up and gone. So I can’t help but wonder what will happen then.”
Author's Notes: Written for theechochorus.
Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. ~Amy Bloom
Audrey stopped in the doorway of her father’s study and watched her parents for a moment.
Her father was seated behind his desk, reviewing materials on his computer. Her mother was stretched out on the sofa, reading one of the romance novels that drove her father crazy. He insisted they were a waste of time, that there was real literature to be had, and tried constantly to foist Tolstoy and Dostoevsky off on her, but her mother clung stubbornly to her books. They’d taught her about happily ever after’s, she claimed, and there was nothing more important than those.
Audrey sighed, just a touch too loudly, causing her mother to look up from her book.
“Did you need something?” Elizabeth asked, automatically sitting up and moving over so there was room for Audrey on the couch next to her.
Her father looked up expectantly.
Audrey hesitated for a moment, and then walked into the room, settling herself next to her mother. “Actually, yes,” she said slowly. “There’s something I need to discuss with both of you.”
“What is it, princess?” Nikolas asked. “Did you go over your limit on your allowance again? Because we’ve talked about this. It really needs to stop.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that.”
“Did you end up in another tabloid?” Elizabeth questioned, exasperation in her voice. “You really need to try to be less conspicuous, sweetheart.”
“No!” Audrey said, more harshly than she meant to. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, regaining her control, the way she’d been taught. Opening her eyes, she said more calmly, “I’m sorry. No, I haven’t done anything that would have landed me on Page 6, again. At least not that I’m aware of.”
“Then what is it?” her father pressed, looking down at the clock on his desk. “I don’t mean to rush you, but I have a conference call with the Tokyo office in about an hour.”
She stood. “I can come back later.”
Elizabeth tugged her back down, frowning at Nikolas. “No, tell us what’s going on. Is everything alright? You seem edgy.”
“I’m fine,” Audrey demurred. She took a deep breath. “Actually, this is good news. I’ve decided where I’m going to college.”
Elizabeth’s face lit up. “That’s wonderful! Where did you settle on? Harvard? Georgetown? Penn?”
Audrey shook her head. “No.” She stiffened her spine, sitting up straighter. “The Sorbonne.”
Nikolas frowned. “France? You want to go to France?” He got up and started pacing around the room. “What is it with my children wanting to leave the country to go to college? Am I really so overbearing that you can’t stand to be in the same country as me?”
“Of course not, Daddy,” Audrey said, rolling her eyes at his overreaction. “You know I adore you.”
“I notice you didn’t say anything about your brother,” Nikolas muttered.
“Nikolas,” Elizabeth said sharply. “Now is not the time.” She turned to her daughter. “What made you decide that?”
Audrey hesitated. What was she supposed to say? That the man she’d always been in love with was going to marry the woman he’d been dating for the last five years and she couldn’t stand to watch? It would be the truth, but that didn’t mean her parents needed to know that. “I just thought it was time for me to get some cultural experience,” she said finally. That was partially true. “Aren’t you the ones that wanted to ship me off to a finishing school in Switzerland this year?”
“Never mind that,” Nikolas barked. He came and sat on the front of his desk, staring intently at Audrey. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
She nodded. “It is.”
He stood, bending down to kiss the top of her head. “Then that’s what you’ll get.” He straightened. “I’ll start working on the arrangements tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Father,” Audrey said, smiling up at him.
“Do I not get a say?” Elizabeth asked with some irritation. “This is my daughter we’re shipping off to France, too, remember?”
“Mother…” Audrey turned to her.
“Why are you so hell bent on this, Audrey?” Elizabeth pressed. “This doesn’t feel right.”
“I just am. It feels right. I’m sorry if you don’t approve, Mother, but my mind is made up.” She stood, and looked over to her father. “Let me know if you need my help with any of the arrangements.”
He nodded. “I will.”
“Thank you.” Audrey stalked out of the study, muttering under her breath in Russian.
Nikolas came to sit next to Elizabeth on the couch. “What’s wrong?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Elizabeth,” he sighed.
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
He stood. “Fine. Then I have a meeting to prepare for.”
“Are you kicking me out?” Elizabeth stared at him in shock. “Nikolas!”
“Of course not,” Nikolas said patiently. “But you don’t want to talk to me about whatever is clearly bothering you, so I’m going to go back to preparing for my meeting.”
“Fine. What the hell are you thinking?”
“Excuse me?”
“What the hell are you thinking?” she repeated. “Agreeing to send our daughter off to France without so much as discussing it? Why would you do that?”
“It’s what she wants. Did it sound like any amount of discussion was going to change her mind?”
“Does that mean it shouldn’t have been discussed? We had long, drawn out discussions with all of the boys about their college decisions, and now our only daughter decides she’s leaving the country and it’s perfectly alright?”
He sighed. “Maybe you’re right. But I’m not going back on my word now, and I still don’t think that her decision about where to go to college is what’s upsetting you.”
“What else would be upsetting me?” she asked defensively.
“I don’t know, the fact that the last of our children is going off to college?”
She stared at him in shock, shaking her head. “That’s not it.”
“Isn’t it?” He came back to sit next to her again. “Elizabeth, you have to talk to me. If we’ve learned anything during our marriage, it’s that we have to talk.”
They stared at each other in silence.
Finally, Elizabeth sighed. “Maybe that’s part of it. Maybe I don’t want my baby going off to college at all, no matter where. And I know France will be good for her, she’s always talked about wanting to go there, so it’s not like this was totally unexpected.”
“But?” Nikolas prompted.
“But maybe I’m more worried about what happens after she does go off to college.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Us, Nikolas. Our marriage.”
“What about our marriage?” He looked confused. “What does Audrey growing up and moving out have to do with that?”
She shrugged a little, and dropped her eyes to her lap. “We got married because of Audrey. Our marriage has always been about our children, and now they’re all grown up and gone. So I can’t help but wonder what will happen then.”
“Elizabeth.”
She didn’t answer, twisting her wedding ring back and forth on her finger.
He reached out and cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Elizabeth.”
“What?” She squirmed under the intensity of his gaze.
“Listen to me very carefully when I say this,” he said forcefully. “When we got married, yes it was about Audrey. But if you think that the last eighteen years have only been about her, then I don’t know what to tell you.” He paused, trying to find the right way to say what he needed to. “Elizabeth, I love you. Don’t you know that? Haven’t I shown you that? Haven’t I made you happy? Because I’ve tried to do that, and if you’re telling me now that I haven’t…”
She stared at him in shock. “What?”
“I love you,” he said again. “I thought you knew that.”
She shook her head, still in shock. “You’ve told me before, but I never thought it meant you loved loved me.”
He winced. “Aren’t we a little old to be using expressions like that?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a better suggestion?”
“No.” He took her hand, running his thumb across her wedding ring. “I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, what I felt for you changed. Deepened. I’ve always loved you, as a friend and as family, but eventually I realized that I couldn’t picture my life without you. That there wasn’t anyone else that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, that I wanted to grow old and raise our family with. If I never told you, then I’m sorry. I should have, a million times over. Because you are the only woman in the world for me, Elizabeth. Just you. And I wouldn’t have traded the last eighteen years for anything. For anyone.”
“Nikolas, I had no idea…” She trailed off, looking down at their joined hands. When she looked back up at him, it was with love in her eyes. “I love you, too.”
He smiled at her. “You do?”
She nodded, blinking back tears. “I do.”
He tugged her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her.
She lifted her hands to his face, tracing the lines that she’d grown to know so well, to love so deeply. She leaned forward, kissing him deeply, slowly, lovingly.
The telephone rang, but they ignored it, wrapped in each other’s love.
Where they’d been all along and hadn’t realized.
Author: empressearwig
Prompt: 78 - Paris
Pairing/Character(s): Audrey, Nikolas/Elizabeth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Any character first appearing on GH does not belong to me. All original creations do.
Word Count: 1622
Spoilers/Warnings: Part of the Lanaverse.
Summary: “We got married because of Audrey. Our marriage has always been about our children, and now they’re all grown up and gone. So I can’t help but wonder what will happen then.”
Author's Notes: Written for theechochorus.
Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle. ~Amy Bloom
Audrey stopped in the doorway of her father’s study and watched her parents for a moment.
Her father was seated behind his desk, reviewing materials on his computer. Her mother was stretched out on the sofa, reading one of the romance novels that drove her father crazy. He insisted they were a waste of time, that there was real literature to be had, and tried constantly to foist Tolstoy and Dostoevsky off on her, but her mother clung stubbornly to her books. They’d taught her about happily ever after’s, she claimed, and there was nothing more important than those.
Audrey sighed, just a touch too loudly, causing her mother to look up from her book.
“Did you need something?” Elizabeth asked, automatically sitting up and moving over so there was room for Audrey on the couch next to her.
Her father looked up expectantly.
Audrey hesitated for a moment, and then walked into the room, settling herself next to her mother. “Actually, yes,” she said slowly. “There’s something I need to discuss with both of you.”
“What is it, princess?” Nikolas asked. “Did you go over your limit on your allowance again? Because we’ve talked about this. It really needs to stop.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not that.”
“Did you end up in another tabloid?” Elizabeth questioned, exasperation in her voice. “You really need to try to be less conspicuous, sweetheart.”
“No!” Audrey said, more harshly than she meant to. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, regaining her control, the way she’d been taught. Opening her eyes, she said more calmly, “I’m sorry. No, I haven’t done anything that would have landed me on Page 6, again. At least not that I’m aware of.”
“Then what is it?” her father pressed, looking down at the clock on his desk. “I don’t mean to rush you, but I have a conference call with the Tokyo office in about an hour.”
She stood. “I can come back later.”
Elizabeth tugged her back down, frowning at Nikolas. “No, tell us what’s going on. Is everything alright? You seem edgy.”
“I’m fine,” Audrey demurred. She took a deep breath. “Actually, this is good news. I’ve decided where I’m going to college.”
Elizabeth’s face lit up. “That’s wonderful! Where did you settle on? Harvard? Georgetown? Penn?”
Audrey shook her head. “No.” She stiffened her spine, sitting up straighter. “The Sorbonne.”
Nikolas frowned. “France? You want to go to France?” He got up and started pacing around the room. “What is it with my children wanting to leave the country to go to college? Am I really so overbearing that you can’t stand to be in the same country as me?”
“Of course not, Daddy,” Audrey said, rolling her eyes at his overreaction. “You know I adore you.”
“I notice you didn’t say anything about your brother,” Nikolas muttered.
“Nikolas,” Elizabeth said sharply. “Now is not the time.” She turned to her daughter. “What made you decide that?”
Audrey hesitated. What was she supposed to say? That the man she’d always been in love with was going to marry the woman he’d been dating for the last five years and she couldn’t stand to watch? It would be the truth, but that didn’t mean her parents needed to know that. “I just thought it was time for me to get some cultural experience,” she said finally. That was partially true. “Aren’t you the ones that wanted to ship me off to a finishing school in Switzerland this year?”
“Never mind that,” Nikolas barked. He came and sat on the front of his desk, staring intently at Audrey. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
She nodded. “It is.”
He stood, bending down to kiss the top of her head. “Then that’s what you’ll get.” He straightened. “I’ll start working on the arrangements tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Father,” Audrey said, smiling up at him.
“Do I not get a say?” Elizabeth asked with some irritation. “This is my daughter we’re shipping off to France, too, remember?”
“Mother…” Audrey turned to her.
“Why are you so hell bent on this, Audrey?” Elizabeth pressed. “This doesn’t feel right.”
“I just am. It feels right. I’m sorry if you don’t approve, Mother, but my mind is made up.” She stood, and looked over to her father. “Let me know if you need my help with any of the arrangements.”
He nodded. “I will.”
“Thank you.” Audrey stalked out of the study, muttering under her breath in Russian.
Nikolas came to sit next to Elizabeth on the couch. “What’s wrong?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Elizabeth,” he sighed.
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
He stood. “Fine. Then I have a meeting to prepare for.”
“Are you kicking me out?” Elizabeth stared at him in shock. “Nikolas!”
“Of course not,” Nikolas said patiently. “But you don’t want to talk to me about whatever is clearly bothering you, so I’m going to go back to preparing for my meeting.”
“Fine. What the hell are you thinking?”
“Excuse me?”
“What the hell are you thinking?” she repeated. “Agreeing to send our daughter off to France without so much as discussing it? Why would you do that?”
“It’s what she wants. Did it sound like any amount of discussion was going to change her mind?”
“Does that mean it shouldn’t have been discussed? We had long, drawn out discussions with all of the boys about their college decisions, and now our only daughter decides she’s leaving the country and it’s perfectly alright?”
He sighed. “Maybe you’re right. But I’m not going back on my word now, and I still don’t think that her decision about where to go to college is what’s upsetting you.”
“What else would be upsetting me?” she asked defensively.
“I don’t know, the fact that the last of our children is going off to college?”
She stared at him in shock, shaking her head. “That’s not it.”
“Isn’t it?” He came back to sit next to her again. “Elizabeth, you have to talk to me. If we’ve learned anything during our marriage, it’s that we have to talk.”
They stared at each other in silence.
Finally, Elizabeth sighed. “Maybe that’s part of it. Maybe I don’t want my baby going off to college at all, no matter where. And I know France will be good for her, she’s always talked about wanting to go there, so it’s not like this was totally unexpected.”
“But?” Nikolas prompted.
“But maybe I’m more worried about what happens after she does go off to college.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Us, Nikolas. Our marriage.”
“What about our marriage?” He looked confused. “What does Audrey growing up and moving out have to do with that?”
She shrugged a little, and dropped her eyes to her lap. “We got married because of Audrey. Our marriage has always been about our children, and now they’re all grown up and gone. So I can’t help but wonder what will happen then.”
“Elizabeth.”
She didn’t answer, twisting her wedding ring back and forth on her finger.
He reached out and cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Elizabeth.”
“What?” She squirmed under the intensity of his gaze.
“Listen to me very carefully when I say this,” he said forcefully. “When we got married, yes it was about Audrey. But if you think that the last eighteen years have only been about her, then I don’t know what to tell you.” He paused, trying to find the right way to say what he needed to. “Elizabeth, I love you. Don’t you know that? Haven’t I shown you that? Haven’t I made you happy? Because I’ve tried to do that, and if you’re telling me now that I haven’t…”
She stared at him in shock. “What?”
“I love you,” he said again. “I thought you knew that.”
She shook her head, still in shock. “You’ve told me before, but I never thought it meant you loved loved me.”
He winced. “Aren’t we a little old to be using expressions like that?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a better suggestion?”
“No.” He took her hand, running his thumb across her wedding ring. “I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line, what I felt for you changed. Deepened. I’ve always loved you, as a friend and as family, but eventually I realized that I couldn’t picture my life without you. That there wasn’t anyone else that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, that I wanted to grow old and raise our family with. If I never told you, then I’m sorry. I should have, a million times over. Because you are the only woman in the world for me, Elizabeth. Just you. And I wouldn’t have traded the last eighteen years for anything. For anyone.”
“Nikolas, I had no idea…” She trailed off, looking down at their joined hands. When she looked back up at him, it was with love in her eyes. “I love you, too.”
He smiled at her. “You do?”
She nodded, blinking back tears. “I do.”
He tugged her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her.
She lifted her hands to his face, tracing the lines that she’d grown to know so well, to love so deeply. She leaned forward, kissing him deeply, slowly, lovingly.
The telephone rang, but they ignored it, wrapped in each other’s love.
Where they’d been all along and hadn’t realized.