Elizabeth is sitting with Lucky, holding his hand while she waits for him to wake up. She wishes she could find the words right now to get him to wake up, but she knew that no matter what she said, he'd still be asleep for hours. She felt their silent connection was always stronger, anyway, and kept on clinging to the love of her life.
The rest of the family stood outside, watching Elizabeth and Lucky through the window. Everyone was grateful that Lucky was going to live, and prayed for a completely recovery. Each one of them, holding hands with another, gave each other comfort in their time of need.
Luke still stood in the background, watching his family pulling together in a crisis. He wished he could be a part of that picture, but he gave that up 5 years ago. He couldn't turn back time and erase the memory of his leaving them. He didn't fit in that picture anymore. They might have been his family, but he felt he no longer belonged.
Sonny ran in and went over to Laura. Luke watched them as they hugged and jealousy filled his eyes. He didn't understand why he would be so jealous at seeing the exchange between his once best friend and his wife. He had told Laura to move on with her life, even encouraged it by never coming back. And he thought he wanted her to move on and find happiness with another man, but he knew that the biggest part of him would always belong to her and he only wished she felt the same.
Once Sonny and Laura released, Sonny went into his pocket and handed Laura a tape. "I got it as you asked. How did you know that this would be in his radio still?"
"I heard him playing it last night. He was thinking about Luke then and put it on. I think he needs to hear it now, so thanks."
"You know that anything I can do for that man in there, I will."
Luke watched them talk, but couldn't hear the words between them. Then he saw something that bothered him even more than seeing his wife hugging Sonny. His daughter had gone up to him and Sonny knelt down to give her a hug too. She was crying in his arms and he comforted her in a fatherly way. "Has Sonny replaced me?" Luke asked himself.
Once Lulu stopped crying, Sonny stood up and looked around, seeing Luke in the back. He asked Laura to excuse him as he walked over to where Luke was. "Hey, pal," he said.
"Hey," Luke replied, barely audible.
"Why aren't you there with your family?"
"I'm not needed there, nor wanted. It seems they get along fine without me. They even have a man to lean on," Luke said, the jealousy in his voice becoming apparent.
"What do you mean?" Sonny asked, but when he looked into Luke's eyes, he could see exactly what Luke meant. "Luke, get those thoughts out of your head. I haven't taken your place over there. I care about them a lot, but they're still your family."
"And if anyone had just seen this picture right now, they'd think I was the outsider and you were the one with the family."
"Maybe because the man whose family this is doesn't seem to want to be over there with them. They never stopped thinking about you. None of them."
"You know, I really don't need to hear this right now. I'm here because my son is in that hospital bed because of me. This just proves that I don't belong here. He'd be fine, enjoying his honeymoon right now if I hadn't shown up. All I ever do is hurt them in one way or another," Luke said angrily as he turned his back on Sonny and began to walk away.
Before Luke could get too far, Sonny grabbed him by the shoulder and turned Luke around to face him. "Who the hell do you think you are, Luke? Maybe it's inconvenient for you to have a family, but you have one," Sonny said angrily. Luke looked at him, not understanding what he was getting at. "You fell in love with a woman, married her, promised to spend the rest of your life with her, and had two wonderful children with her. Then one night you decided you didn't want that anymore and left. Well, sorry, pal, but it doesn't work that way. You can't just leave like you never had that family."
"What are you talking about?" Luke asked.
"You act like you think the last 5 years can erase all the years before that. I know from personal experience that that can't possibly happen. I tried to think that the years Mike was gone would erase the years that he was actually there for my mother and me, and it wasn't possible. But at least Mike grew up at some point and realized just how important a family is."
"And you think I don't know that?" Luke asked angrily. "I know just how important my family is. They're the most important part of my life. If I didn't love them so much, I wouldn't have left."
"And do you have any idea what happened when you left? I don't think so. You never thought about the repercussions of that little stunt, did you? Well, I'll fill you in on some of the facts. Lucky came by the club the night you left. He called me as soon as I got finished talking to you in your office and rushed over. And do you want to know why? Because he wanted to talk things out with you. He wanted to start repairing your relationship. But instead of getting that chance, he walked into an empty office, only later to find out that he wouldn't see you again."
"Lucky didn't want to repair anything. He didn't want me around," Luke said quietly.
"How would you know that? You didn't stick around to find out!" Sonny yelled. He knew he was losing control of his temper, but he didn't care anymore.
"My son hated what I represented, Sonny. Every time he looked at me, he saw the man who raped his mother."
"Then you sure don't know him as well as you ever thought you did. He was angry at finding that out, but he didn't think of you as his mother's rapist. That's only what he wanted you to see because he was angry. He still thought of you as his father. And then, as soon as he decided to start letting go of his anger, you hit the road. I have to hand it to you pal. You did find a way to have him let go of his anger. You replaced it with guilt. The same kind of guilt that leads a man to drink."
"What?" Luke asked quietly.
"You heard me. It took everything Laura, Lesley, Elizabeth, and me had in ourselves to pull him away from the alcohol. We even got desperate enough that we sent him to Kevin privately. He probably wouldn't even be alive today if it weren't for Elizabeth. Somehow, through the first year, she was the one who got him through some scary nights," Sonny whispered, knowing how much this was hurting Luke to hear.
"I didn't know."
"How could you know? You ran away. I never took you for a quitter, but that's what you did. You proved me wrong 5 years ago, and it seems that you're determined to prove me wrong again. Pal, if you value your family as much as you say you do, don't quit on them this time," Sonny said, placing his hand on Luke's shoulder before leaving.
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The next morning, Lucky wakes up to see Elizabeth sitting by his bedside, asleep. He tried to move, but it was too hard. He opened up his mouth slowly, struggling to say, "Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth jumped up at the sound of Lucky's whisper. "I'm here," she said quietly.
"You were here all night?"
"Of course I was, Lucky. You didn't think I'd spend the first night as a married woman without my husband, did you?"
Lucky smiled. He seemed to become more impressed with her every day, and it was the very small things he was impressed about. He looked through the window of his room and saw almost his whole family standing there together, watching the two of them. "Elizabeth, is my father still here?"
"Yes. He stayed the whole night also."
"If you don't mind, can you please ask him to come in here? I really need to speak to him."
Elizabeth smiled and kissed her husband before stepping out of the room. As soon as she closed the door behind her, everyone rushed over to her, asking her how Lucky seemed. She told them that he was weak but otherwise seemed fine and excused herself to walk over to Luke. She didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to talk to Lucky's father. As she approached him, she gathered all of her strength to deliver her husband's request. "Mr. Spencer?"
Luke looked up at her, but didn't respond. ‘He sure isn't going to make this any easier on me, is he?' she thought. "Mr. Spencer. Your son would like to see you before he sees anyone else."
"Why?" he asked.
"There's only one way to find out," Elizabeth said, not hiding the fact that she was a little angered by Luke's attitude so far.
Luke nodded and gathered himself as best he could as he headed over to speak to his son for the first time since he left.
