Alone together in NYC, where they are forced to share a hotel room, Liz and Lucky are overwhelmed with a desire for greater physical intimacy this week on General Hospital.
Sexual tension has been building since their Valentine's Day commitment ceremony. Even before Liz and Lucky leave for NY,''they start getting a little hot and heavy with the kissing," Rebecca Herbst, Elizabeth says. "Then they both just kinda decide to take a breather. Liz and lucky, for being 16, 17 years old are, like the brightest kids I've ever known. Their common sense, their maturity level, is way advanced, so if they continue with the touchy-feely-huggy-kissy thing, its going to turn into something a little more dangerous. It's more like , you know, its getting late and I better go home, yeah, you better go home; yeah, we better go home. Its kind of an understood thing, but we really don't talk about it."
They do confide in Nik and Emily about their growing physical attraction, however, Nik responds by giving his brother a condom "to protect him,''head writer BG says. "Lucky and Nik are closer than they have ever been.They really are brothers now, So this is in no way Nik trying to say,'Go for it, bro.' Its, 'You make your choices, and if you do here's a way to protect yourself and the person you care for.'
"Finding out about Nik and Kat's affair has sparked Liz and lucky's curiosity about the status of their own sexual relationship. "I don't think he is judging his brother's sexuality; I think he is intrigued by it and pressured by it, which is why he takes the condom," executive producer Wendy Rich adds, "Which is what Lucky ultimately has to face. That's what every kid today, yesterday and tomorrow is faced with: Do I want it, or do I think I would be doing it now? If I want it, is it really the right thing to be doing at this point in my life? If Im going to do it, am I being responsible and using protection? If Im using protection, is it the right kind of protection? So we have the opportunity with these beloved characters who have struggled together and who have loved together and no ware exploring sexuality together to reach an audience that doesn't really want to be preached to, but wants to feel it.''
Liz tells Emily that "she's ready to do more that just kissing, but she's not sure whether she wants to make love to him or not," Herbst says.
"She really wants to please Lucky," Riche notes, "she does not want to let him down, and she embodies the pressure that a lot of young girls feel, which is to love and be loved means you've got to deliver."Although she confides in Emily, lucky is really her sounding board.''That's what's so neat about these two," Guza adds,''They are so close and they can talk about anything because they have been intimate in so many other ways- her opening up to him in the aftermath of the rape and in the months after that. Dealing with the assault on her was some of the most intimate stuff two people can ever do with one another. they are very straight with each other and are each other's talk-to."
Liz's rape weighs heavily on Lucky as he grapples with his conflicted feelings about sleeping together. "Its not just teen-age hormone instinct," JJ (Lucky) explains. "It's that, with a lot of love and respect and friendship and feelings he has for Elizabeth. So he's pretty much feeling every good emotion he can feel for a partner. At the sometimes, its overwhelming for him. I think the sexual tension just adds another level to something he's never felt that extreme before. A lot of things are running through his head: not wanting to scare her or take advantage of her because of the rape, and also his own feelings about if he wants to sleep with her."
Something else also preying on Lucky's mind is his visit to Tammy several months ago, and he decided to tell Liz about it. "I think Elizabeth is always a little more forgiving than she needs to be,'' Herbst says. "I mean, she has a right to be upset, but more that anything she just wants to know all the facts. its like, well, why? Tell me what came out of it. All she can remember is him coming back to her on the docks that day saying 'My appointment was cut short; lets go to the carnival.' he had this look in his eye, which she didn't quite understand then, but know realizes that when he first realized that he loved her. So she kinda overlooks the fact that he went to a prostitute. Part of it is because he has been like this incredible rock for her. you can hardly expect anyguy,especially a guy his age, to do for you what he did in terms of helping her through the rape. he's almost been like a brother or a young father or an uncle. And he's treated her with the utmost respect. So her first thoughts are not you betrayed me, you cheated on me, why would you want her and not me. She doesn't think like that because the relationship is so very innocent and honest.''
Riche and Guza believe the fact that they are ''regular kids'' makes Liz and lucky the ideal teen characters to use in order to reach young viewers with an important social message. '' They are young people, but they are old beyond their age-very wise souls,'' Guza says. ''She spent an enormous amount of time trying to deal with a horrible act of violence, and she is physically and emotionally ready to be intimate. He lives on his own,has traveled around the world, at the age of 9 he traveled into town on his own. Arguably, he's 16 going on 36. its not like these are street kids who are irresponsible and deeply, deeply in love with each other. So the question of how they deal with the option of making love for the first time is very, very interesting- what happens whey you take a couple like that who are so connected and you bring up the question of sexuality as opposed to a couple who weren't as connected and would be talking to other people and pretending one thing to each other and something else with somebody else. That's not this dynamic at all. Liz and Lucky don't play games with one another.''
"The purity of their love is exactly what raises the question of will they or won't they," Rich adds. "Its not a given that they will because they love each other."
"Finding out about Nik and Kat's affair has sparked Liz and lucky's curiosity about the status of their own sexual relationship. "I don't think he is judging his brother's sexuality; I think he is intrigued by it and pressured by it, which is why he takes the condom," executive producer Wendy Rich adds, "Which is what Lucky ultimately has to face. That's what every kid today, yesterday and tomorrow is faced with: Do I want it, or do I think I would be doing it now? If I want it, is it really the right thing to be doing at this point in my life? If Im going to do it, am I being responsible and using protection? If Im using protection, is it the right kind of protection? So we have the opportunity with these beloved characters who have struggled together and who have loved together and no ware exploring sexuality together to reach an audience that doesn't really want to be preached to, but wants to feel it.''