Tiffany watched the door close behind Luke and turned to face Lesley. "What do you make of that?"
Lesley shrugged her shoulders, not knowing exactly what Luke needed from Laura. She couldn't see anyway that the two of them would be able to get back together without going through the whole relationship process again. And she knew that would take too long because there were children to consider.
Tiffany looked out the window and watched Luke and Lulu pull away. "Don't the two of them realize they are not only hurting each other? Don't they realize that they're hurting their kids in the process?" Lesley was about to interrupt but Tiffany put up her hands to say she wasn't finished. "It's so frustrating. I think about that little girl, my goddaughter, and she probably doesn't even know that once Luke drops her back off at home, she won't see him until he decides to take her to the park again. Then I think about Anna, my little girl, and how I would do whatever it took to prevent her from that kind of hurt. Luke and Laura are the adults. They should be able to face their problems and start finding a way to resolve them. Before their children get hurt."
"It's too late to prevent them from being hurt, Tiffany. I've been thinking about Lulu too. If this continues, she will never grow up knowing who her parents really are. My daughter and son-in-law are not the same without each other."
"Then what are we going to do about it?"
Lucky looked at Liz and was about to finally confide in her when Ruby came outside. "Ms. Webber, don't you have a break that just ended 5 minutes ago?"
Liz looked back and forth between Lucky and Ruby. She could feel that Lucky was about to tell her what's been going on, and she wanted to be here for him, but Ruby looked like she meant business. "I'm sorry, I'm going back inside now. Lucky, if you want to talk later, you know where I'll be."
Liz went back inside and Ruby took Liz's seat. "What's going on, Lucky?"
Lucky looked down at his hands before speaking. "Did you hear that Dad is out of jail?"
"Yeah. News passes quickly in Port Charles. Have you seen him?"
"No. And that's the problem. I don't know when I'm going to see him. He has no reason to come back home. So what do I do in the meantime? Ruby, I honestly can't even look at my mother in the same way anymore. All I keep thinking is what secret is going to come out next? What else is she hiding from us and how is it going to destroy this family even more? If I feel this way, I can't even imagine how Dad feels."
Ruby took Lucky's hands, comforting him in the way she always comforted Luke when he was in pain. "I wish I had answers for you. I wish I could take all of this away."
"But you can't. The secret's out of the bag. And every time we think there are no more secrets, one manages to come out of hiding. I just want my dad back. If he was back, somehow I would be able to live with this. I'm not strong enough to handle it all by myself," Lucky said, tears forming in his eyes.
Ruby took a napkin and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Lucky, you can trust this more than you can trust anything in your life. Luke will always be there for you. And you underestimate your own strength. You're Luke's son. You have more strength than most men. You will get through this."
"But I want Dad back in my life like he was before this came out. I don't want to have him across town. I don't want to have to go to the club to see him. I don't want to live in that house without him."
"And I trust that he will be back there. Lucky, your father needs time to sort this out. He has just been blindsided and it's going to take time to pick up the pieces. But he still loves your mother, and no one will ever convince me that she doesn't feel the same way. They've been through too much in their life together not to have a strong love. Just try to stick this out a little while longer. That's all I can ask, and that's what your father needs right now."
Luke and Lulu walked over to the swings, and Luke lifted up his daugher and placed her in one. She begged him to push her up really high so that she could touch the sky, and he couldn't refuse her. As he kept on pushing her, letting her laughter erase the pain he was feeling at the moment, his mind drifted off to another time...
Luke was staring at his daughter through the window of the nursery at the hospital. She was so beautiful, more beautiful than he could have imagined. ‘My daughter,' he thought, still terrified at the thought. He continued to look at her, knowing that she had already managed to steal his heart and his soul. ‘A minature Laura,' he kept thinking, as his thoughts wandered off to his wife, fighting for her life. He was so terrified of raising a daughter with Laura in their lives, but he was paralyzed at the thought of not having Laura around to take care of her. He knew that Laura had always wanted a daughter, and he was happy that it only took two children to give her that wish. Now all he had to hope for was that Laura would be around to cherish it...
"Well, she's the one who is around all the time and I'm the one who is missing out on my daughter's life," he mumbed to himself. He stared off at the bushes, flashing back to yet another time...
Luke was looking at his daughter sleeping quietly. Her life had just been saved by a child he knew nothing about. Even though he wasn't willing to admit it to anyone, he was happy that Laura did have a child on the island, if only to save his daughter's life. No amount of hurt would ever make him wish that Laura didn't have Nikolas. He wanted to be able to tell Laura that, but his anger wouldn't let him. But when he looked deep down, he knew his anger wasn't directed at Laura herself. He believed her when she told him she thought she had no other choice. The picture of her eyes when she told him the truth returned to his memory, and the hate for the Cassdines continued to grow. ‘They took her away from me. They used her until she produced what they wanted, and then told her that she could never have a connection to the one thing she managed to love on the island,' Luke thought as he started stroking Lulu's hair. ‘They will pay for all the pain they caused her and this family.'...
Luke snapped out of the memories when he heard Lulu screaming, "Nikky!" Luke looked over to where Lulu was looking and saw the one person that managed to do the impossible... break up his family. Lulu begged for Luke to stop her and let her off the swing, and as soon as he did, she ran straight into Nikolas' arms. "Can you join us?" Lulu asked.
Nikolas looked over at Luke, seeing the angry glare directed towards him, and then back to Lulu, managing to put a smile on his face. "I wish I could Lesley Lu, but I have somewhere to be. Maybe next time."
Nikolas gave Lulu a hug and watched her run back to Luke before heading out of the park. As soon as he got to his car, someone knocked him out, and carried him off to a van that sped away.
