Sonny walked into Luke's office and took a seat. Luke didn't
even acknowledge his presence. Sonny noticed that Luke didn't seem
to acknowledge much these days. He was still worried that Luke would
try to commit suicide again. He wanted to believe he'd rather live,
but even with him breathing, he still wasn't living anymore. He had
become a shell of himself, and Sonny had no idea how to help.
Luke saw Sonny come in, but he really didn't have anything to say anymore. He was tired of talking about his problems, and even more tired to hear everyone tell him it was in the past. It wasn't in the past anymore. He was able to handle it when it was in the past, but it made its way to the present in the form of his son. It was too hard to deal with the first time, which made it impossible to deal with the second time around.
"So, how was your date?" Sonny asked, trying to get Luke's mind off of what he was thinking.
"A huge mistake," Luke whispered. "I have no idea what I was thinking when I went. I think I left early enough to not cause too much harm, even though I have a feeling that I did cause a little."
"You wouldn't be Luke Spencer if you didn't cause a little trouble."
"No truer words were ever spoken," Luke said, slowly turning away and focussing his sights on the wall across the room.
Sonny knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with Luke right now, so he got up from his chair and headed out the door. Before leaving, he turned around and said, "If you ever want to talk about anything at all, you've got my number." Luke didn't even respond, and Sonny just left his friend alone.
Once Sonny got back to the bar, his cell phone started to ring. "Corinthos."
"Hi, Sonny. It's Lucky."
"Hi, Lucky. How are you doing?"
"I wish I could say good, but you know the problems. I just wanted to know if you've seen my dad."
"Yeah. I just came from his office," Sonny said as he looked back towards Luke's office.
"How is he doing?"
"I really don't know, Lucky. I wish I could tell you he's fine, but he's not in a very talkative mood." Sonny wished he could give Lucky some reassurance that Luke was going to be okay, but he didn't think Luke would be okay if he kept this up. And he didn't know how to tell Lucky that the father he did know was gone now and in his place was an empty man.
"Do you think he'll..."
"No, Lucky. He won't kill himself. I at least have gotten that much out of him while he's been staying here." Sonny took a deep breath. 'Should I tell him that he won't live long like this? Should I warn him?' Sonny didn't want to break the friendship he had with Lucky, but he couldn't see any other way to help Luke out. "Lucky, I have to be honest with you. The man you knew as your father is just a shell of himself now. He's completely withdrawn from everything and everyone. He may have said he won't kill himself, but he won't live too much longer like this. He may not try to die, but he doesn't want to live either."
"I've been scared of that."
'Is Lucky crying?' Sonny wondered. "You could do him a favor, though. Lucky, I know you're angry at him, but I also know you don't want anything to happen to him. If you can get your mother to come here and try to get him to open up to her, I think it'll help."
"I'll see what I can do. Sonny, thanks for telling me the truth."
Lucky hung up the phone and was about to go to his mother, when he decided that he could probably do more for his father right now that she could. He put on his shoes and headed out the door.
Luke was tired of his office and headed out through the back door. He really wasn't up for a game of 20 questions with Sonny right now, so going through the front door was not an option for him. He'll deal with the questions later. Right now he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts.
Lucky ran to the club and headed inside. Sonny was shocked when he found Lucky coming in through the door. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I heard what you said over the phone, and I thought I might be able to help him more than mom can right now. That's if he's going to be willing to talk to me."
Sonny placed a hand on Lucky's shoulder and said, "I think he'd definitely willing to talk to you, but are you ready for this? I know that you've been so angry with him and I'm just worried you might be putting yourself in a position that you can't handle right now."
'I'm not sure,' Lucky thought. "I'm the one who started my father on this self-destructive mode. Maybe if I'd be willing to listen to him for a change, he'll come around a little. I don't want to lose him."
Sonny nodded and allowed Lucky through to Luke's office. A minute later, Lucky came running out, panicking. "Sonny, my dad left! What if I was too late?"
Luke walked around for a while before ending up in his backyard. He stared at the house, remembering what it used to resemble. He never really did like the house too much, but he did love the family it kept safe. He started remembering when he and Laura hid in the house when they first arrived in Port Charles. Laura had fallen in love with the house at first sight. He thought she was crazy to fall in love with a broken-down house, but as she reminded him on many occasions, she never fell in love with anything ordinary. He just wanted to know why she seemed to fall in love with disasters.
Luke was dying to go inside and see his wife, his daughter, and his son. But one of those three definitely didn't ever want to see him anymore. He had made the greatest sacrifice in his life, giving up his family, in order to bring some small sense of comfort and happiness in his son's life. Now the only choice he had left was whether to leave Port Charles for good so his son would never have to be reminded of who his father is. Was he going to be strong enough to give up everything for his son? He held the envelope up that he was carrying and knew it was the only way to make everything right.
As Luke started heading to the house to drop off the envelope, he heard someone come out of the bushes. "Nikolas?"
