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“Elizabeth will be alright.
She’s agreed to get help, and with time, I
feel that she will be able to deal
with the trauma and live her life
normally again.” Bobbie Spencer
rubbed her temples. The past week had
been extremely stressful for her.
She glanced at the fireplace, where
Luke paced restlessly, staring
in to the flames with a tortured look.
“Luke? With the rapist being
hunted all over town, past history is
going to be dragged up, whether
you like it or not. Do you really want
Lucky to hear from the grapevine,
that Laura was raped all those years
ago? And not only that, but
by you?” Luke snapped his head up and
glared at Bobby, “That is the past
Barbara Jean, and Lucky will hear
about that past if and when I choose.
Right now he doesn't need to know
that his father raped his mother.”
Lucky froze in the doorway, hand
stuck to the doorknob. “What did you
say?” He asked in a hushed voice.
Luke and Bobbie, not having heard the
door open, whirled around, “Cowboy!”
Luke gasped. Bobbie turned away,
she could not bear to look at Lucky.
His face was white, his eyes wide
with terror. He blinked,
unable to process what he had just overheard.
Without a word, he turned and bolted
from the house, leaving the door
wide open. “LUCKY!!!!!!!!”
Luke yelled. Bobbie shivered but not from
the cold of the open door, but
the bewildered face of Lucky which lay
trapped in her mind.
Lucky finally stopped running in
the park. He sat down on a bench and
gasped for air. Thoughts
whirled through his mind at a mile a minute.
He couldn't believe what he had
heard. “Dad ... raped ... Mom?” He
stuttered to himself quietly.
“Lucky?” Lucky glanced up into the
concerned faces of Emily and Sarah.
“You look terrible!” Sarah gasped.
Lucky had a wild look to him, like
he was about to explode. Emily
studied her old friend carefully.
“Lucky, do you want to come back to
my house with us? You look
like you shouldn't be by yourself.” Sarah
nodded. “No, I'm alright,
I'm fine..... I ... I.....” Lucky shook his
head and stood up and turned his
back to the girls. “What happened to
you tonight?” Sarah asked curiously.
Lucky remained silent. Emily,
taking the hint, nudged Sarah
along. “If you change your mind Lucky,
just come over to the mansion.
We're renting movies and stuff, if you
want to join us.” Lucky nodded
his head, and the girls continued on
their way. Emily glanced
back over her shoulder, and smiled a
sympathetic smile at Lucky.
He managed a small nod in return before
walking into the darkness.
Luke threw things out of the closet.
“Where's my coat? I have to go
after him.” Bobbie picked
it up off the chair and handed it to him.
“I'll help.” “Oh no!!! I
think you've done enough for tonight, Barbara
Jean.” Bobbie glared at Luke.
“This wasn't my mistake. This is your
skeleton in the closet, we all
have them. Deal with it.” And with that
she grabbed her purse and stormed
out. On the porch she stopped and
leaned against the rail.
She knew her brother was fueling his rage
against her, she regretted what
she said. With that though, memories of
Caroline and Luke's betrayal wafted
through her mind. She set her jaw
and climbed into her car, and proceeded
to search the city. She
couldn't communicate wither her
brother, but she WAS going to try and
help her nephew.
Luke, now further enraged, thrust
on his coat and grabbed a flashlight
from the drawer. He stormed
out of the house, ignoring the ringing
phone.
*in Switzerland*
Laura hung up the phone, frustrated.
She had been trying to reach Luke
and Lucky all day. She had
such exciting news for them. Lulu had
started a play group and Leslie
was talking more and more each day. She
was anxious to hear all the news
of Port Charles. The doorbell rang, and
she headed to the door. When
she opened it, there was a single rose
lying on the front step. A card
lay beside it. Frightened, Laura opened
it. Scrawled in blood red
ink was the message, “Your son's strength is
being tested. What are you
going to do???”
Lucky hesitated as he reached the
entrance to the catacombs. His now
familiar retreat seemed eerie in
the moonlight. He shook his head,
erasing any childish fears and
walked into the maze of tunnels and
corridors. Feeling the wall
with his hand, he traced his favorite
passageways. The sound of
rushing water, flowing through the drainage
pipes helped to calm his nerves.
Wandering around aimlessly for what
seemed like hours, he came to a
void. He wanted to cross the landing to
the next set of passageways, but
the footing was tricky. “Come on
Lucky, you remember this, you could
do it with his eyes closed.” Lucky
grasped the pipe along the side
and crossed over to the narrow slab of
concrete that led to the next corridor.
Halfway across, his breathing
became labored and he began to
sweat. Luke's words rushed through his
mind. “He does not need to know
that his father raped his mother.”
Letting go of the walls, Lucky
grabbed his stomach, as a feeling of
nausea shot through him.
Momentarily, the pain ceased and Lucky stood
upright, forgetting where he was.
He teetered on the edge of the slab,
and felt himself begin to fall.
He grabbed blindly for the wall, but
finding nothing, plunged to the
bottom of the catacombs, below.
Hours passed and night turned into
day. Neither Luke nor Bobbie had
seen any sign of Lucky. Neighbors
and friends had been alerted to his
disappearance. Luke wearily
entered his house, which was empty, and
brought an onslaught of bad memories
with his return. The look on
Lucky’s face as he fled flashed
into his memory and he collapsed into a
chair. He held his face in
his hands, “What have I done now?” He
moaned in despair. His hand
strayed for the phone, and he snatched it
back. Laura cant know, he
decided. If she knew, she'd some running
back, and with Helena lurking about,
this was the only crisis he needed
at the time. The phone rang,
and Luke lunged for it, hoping for Lucky’s
voice. “Spencer?” Detective
Garcia’s voice sounded meaningless in
Luke's ears. “I want you to know
that we are on the lookout for Lucky.
He needs to be missing for 24 hours
before we can file an official
report, but we hope he’ll have
returned home by then. Until then, we
have a line set up for people to
call in with any information on his
whereabouts.” Luke rubbed
his eyes with his hand, “Thanks Garcia, we’ll
be out searching today. Hopefully
he’ll come come on his own, but I know
my son, if he doesn’t want to be
found, he won’t be.” He hung up the
phone, and went into the kitchen.
After his sleepless night, he was
going to need a lot more
coffee to get though another one.
Monica came into the Quartermaine’s
den. She was deeply troubled by her
conversation with Bobbie the following
evening. Emily and Sarah looked
up sleepily as she walked in. “Good
morning girls.” Monica started, she
paused looking for words. “Look,
there’s no easy way to put this, but
Lucky Spencer is missing.”
Emily looked bewildered, “No he isn’t.” She
argued. “We saw him in the park
last night.” Monica thought this over.
“Yes, but he never returned from
there last night and the Spencers have
reason to believe he may have run
away.” Sarah bit her lip, “He did
look awful last night, did something
happen to him?” Monica shook her
head.
“Bobbie didn’t say what exactly,
except that he and his father had had a
falling out of sorts. People
are basically keeping an eye out for him.
It’s probably that he’s just blowing
off steam. If you see him, would
you both promise to call either
me or the Spencers?” The girls nodded
and Monica left the room, deep
in thought.
Luke jumped as the phone rang.
He picked up the receiver. “Luke? “
Laura’s anxious voice rang over
the phone line. “How are you? Why
haven’t you been answering the
phones?” Luke covered with a quick lie
about a busy night at the club.
He was disturbed when Laura told him of
the flower on the doorstep.
He thought for a moment, “Laura, a good
friend of Lucky’s was attacked
in the park a few weeks ago. I think
Helena is just goading you by reinforcing
that you cant be here for him
right now. No, no don’t worry,
he’s handling it fine. He’s not here,
he left for the library with some
friends to do some project. You can
talk to him next time I promise.”
He chatted conversationally for a
while, dispelling Laura’s fears
about the flower and Elizabeth’s
attack. He hung up the phone,
feeling slightly relieved that he
wouldn’t have to deal with Laura
for a little while longer. Exhausted,
he left the house in search of
his son.
Later that evening, Lucky opened
his heavy eyelids. Blackness
surrounded him, and pain filled
his entire body. The events of the
evening came rushing back to him
and his head began to pound. He sat
up, screaming in pain, and gasped
for air. He feverishly glanced at his
dim surroundings. The ledge
he fell off of lay high above his head, and
he lay in a shallow puddle of freezing
cold water. Shivers racked his
body, and he lay down again.
The pain was excruciating, it hurt for him
to breathe. “Broken ribs.” Lucky
thought to himself. He tired to assess
his situation but only succeeded
in bringing on waves of nausea. He
tried to call for help. The
echo left a wicked ringing in his ears, and
he gave up immediately. He
squeezed his eyes shut. “How long have I
been here?” He thought to
himself. The catacombs were growing darker
and Lucky gave up trying to think,
and fell back into unconsciousness.
Helena stood in front of a large
fireplace, glass of water in hand. A
light knock on the door cause her
to startle. “Come in.” She called
regally, regaining her composure.
Alexis was ushered in by a servant.
“Natasha,” Helena greeted,
in a hard, brittle voice, “How are we this
evening?” Alexis sat on the
couch. “I’m fine thank you. I suppose
you’ve heard. The Spencers
are in a state of crisis.” Helena nodded,
“Ah yes, the disappearance of Laura’s
young son. Any word on him?”
Alexis looked troubled. “I
thought you would know. I assumed, that
this was a plot of yours, and that
you had Luke’s son.” “Ah Natasha,
never assume with me, you should
know this by now. No, it seems that
Luke’s past is the key to young
Lucas’s disappearance. My sources tell me
that he has had a sudden realization
about his parents so called ‘love’
and how it began. I had nothing
to do with this.” Alexis glanced at
the woman, “He has learned of the
rape? That explains Luke’s frantic
state. Well, he should be frantic,
his son is missing, but he just seems
...” She trailed off as Helena
shot her an exasperated glance. “What
are you planning to do?”
Helena glanced out the window, “Wait for the
proper moment to strike, Laura
is more of a target right now then Luke.
He is too preoccupied to play along.
Makes it that less fun for me.”
She sipped her water, and stared
at the snow falling down outside.
*~*~*~*
Luke returned home, thoroughly exhausted
from his search. All of Port
Charles had been scoured, and it
was obvious to Luke that Lucky was no
longer in the city. He sat,
deep in thought. Lucky was on foot, with
little more than thirty dollars
in his wallet. How far could he get?
He pulled the phone books and began
looking up motels in the surrounding
cities. Writing down several
possibilities, he picked up the receiver
to start his calls when there was
a knock on the door. He wearily
hauled himself off the couch and
opened the door, only to see an equally
weary Tony Jones standing on his
porch. “Can I come in?” Tony asked.
Luke stepped back and Tony walked
into the living room. “Tony, I’m
warning you, I don’t have the patience
for your whining tonight.” Tony
looked at his hands, “Look Luke,
I know you did what you had to to
protect your sister. I understand
that you couldn’t tell anyone about
Carly. I just want
to put her behind me. The reason I’m here tonight
is to offer you my help.
Bobbie and I were out around the docks tonight
looking for Lucky.” Luke
shook his head, “I don’t think he’s in Port
Charles anymore. I’m beginning
to wonder if there’s anyway he could be
heading for Switzerland.
Laura would be the person he would run to
right now.” Tony looked surprised,
“Why don’t you just call her? Ask
her if she’s heard from him?”
Luke sighed, “She doesn’t know yet. I
don’t want to alarm her, until
I’m sure he’s not just blowing off steam,
or punishing me for what he heard.”
“It’s been almost a day and a
half, would he stay away
this long?” Luke nodded, “He’s upset, I don’t
know how long he’ll run for.”
Luke placed his head in his hands, “I
appreciate the help Tony.
I have to find him, and explain. If he is
left to his own conclusions, he’ll
never forgive me.”
Emily and Robin stared out across
the water, as the launch approached
Spoon Island. Robin put her
hand on Emily’s arm. “You must be very
concerned about Lucky. Are
you sure you want to come along?” Emily
took a deep breath and nodded,
“Yeah, I need to keep my mind otherwise
occupied. My grandfather
won’t let me help search. He’s up in arms
about the rapist still being on
the loose. I’m surprised he let me out
at all today.” Robin laughed
a little, “That sounds like Edward. Stern
and bossy, but caring underneath.
He’s only worried about you Em.”
Emily sighed, “I know but ever
since my overdose, and Liz’s rape he
practically interrogates me every
time I walk in or out the door. He
does have a funny way of showing
his caring, but I guess I’ll get used
to it eventually.” Robin
shook her head, “I know exactly how you feel,
my Uncle Mac was the exact same
way. He was so overprotective, I had to
sneak out if I wanted to leave
the house past nine o'clock.” Emily
laughed ruefully, “I think that’s
why my room’s on the third floor. He
likes to know that I can’t jump
off the roof, unless I’m high anyway.”
She shook her head, “But that’s
all over now.” She shook her hair out of
her face, ”Thank-you so much for
helping me with Nikolas, I don’t want
to make any mistakes in helping
him. Ever since he lost his speech he’s
been so vulnerable and I don’t
want anything to go wrong with his
recovery. Besides, I think
this is more social, the two of us helping
him, he needs to have more friends,
he’s practically a hermit.”
*~*~*~*
Nikolas stood on the edge of the
cliff, overlooking the docks. He could
make out the tiny launch as it
approached the island. He turned around
and began walking up to the house,
newspaper in hand. The paper had a
tiny article in it, concerning
Lucky’s disappearance. Nikolas couldn’t
believe that Lucky had run
away. The family always seemed so strong,
bonded together. Something
awful must have happened for Lucky to leave
his dad, Nikolas thought to himself.
Nikolas dismissed those thoughts
from his mind. Emily and
Robin were almost there. I can’t believe I’m
actually looking forward to speech
therapy, he thought to himself. Last
time, he and Robin had sat in front
of the fireplace talking about
Paris. He felt so much more
comfortable with the girls, his speech was
coming more and more each day.
He only wished that Katherine would stop
pushing him to talk so much, she
was getting on his nerves immensely.
~*~*~*~*
Stefan watched his nephew walked
to the house. Nikolas was so much more
approachable now that he had started
therapy. His reservations about
Robin Scorpio tutoring him had
vanished the first time Nikolas had
called him Uncle since the shooting.
He turned from the window, “Well
Nikolas, maybe one of these days
you will be able to call me Father.”