"Mom, dad, we're home!" a 14 year old Lucky Spencer yelled as he threw his backpack on the couch, before falling on the couch himself.
"About time you got here," Luke Spencer answered, coming out of the kitchen with a coffee mug in his hand. "You guys are something like half an hour late!"
"It's certainly not MY fault!" Lucky answered defensively as he glanced angrily at his 16 year old brother. "Mr. Casanova here needed more time to say good bye to his girlfriend," he added, before putting a finger in his open mouth, pretending to gag himself. "If I had known he would end up making me sick, I would've walked home instead of waiting for him! At least my butt wouldn't be sore from riding his old chevy!"
Luke looked at Lucky with a smile, while he continued to rant about his brother's car. "It's true dad," Lucky said when he saw the look of disbelief on his father's face. "I swear, this is the honest to God truth!" The boy said with his hand in the air. "Tomorrow I'll have trouble sitting in class because of the too worn out seats in his car!"
"Well then tomorrow morning you'll walk to school," Luke answered before taking a sip of his coffee and walking over to the mantle.
"What? Why?" Lucky asked, following his father with his head. "Why would I have to walk to school when my brother has a car?"
"Because you can't stop badmouthing his car," Luke answered as he sat down on the other side of the couch. "Son, you have to respect your brother's things. His car is very important to him, he worked hard to be able to pay for it, and you shouldn't be diminishing it like that. If you can't appreciate your brother's car, take the bus or walk to school"
"Ok, fine, I won't say another bad thing about his car," Lucky sighed, glancing angrily at his brother. He hated when his father made sense like that!
"Don't worry son. You, too, soon will have a no good used car," Luke said as he smiled at Lucky, pleased to see his youngest son burst out laughing as he understood Luke made fun of the old car, too. "I'm kidding!" Luke said as he saw the oldest boy run up the stairs of the 24, Royal street house.
"Ok, dad, why did you need us?" Lucky said after his laughter died down a little. "You said we were late, so that means you needed us with something, right?"
Luke sighed. The good spirit he put Lucky in since the boy walked in would probably die right now. Things were heating up in the Spencer household, once again. But this time, it wasn't Frank Smith's men that were after them. Luke and Laura had prayed and prayed that this day would never happen. That, for once, they would be able to live in peace, but their prayers hadn't been answered.
Luke remembered when Laura kicked him out the year before, because of the shooting that happened in their home, result of his partnership with mobster and best friend, Sonny Corinthos. She said that he attracted danger, and her children would never be safe as long as he was around. After both boys had run away, helping Lucky's friend Emily, Luke had reunited with his wife, and they had finally been able to live peacefully.
Until they received that little piece of information in the middle of the afternoon.
Over the months that nothing happened, the boys had grown overly confident that their days of troubles were over. They weren't watching over their shoulders anymore, like they were suppose to do at all times, like Luke had thought them from as young as they could understand the word danger.
Luke made enemies faster than a dog could eat raw meat. There was something about him that rubbed people the wrong way. No one had ever been indifferent to Luke Spencer. Either he countered fierce loyalty from people, or utter resentment. There was a fire in him, a joy of just being alive, a courage that would stop at nothing, a pride more strong than anything else, that would just make people mad. Luke had never bowed in front of anyone, or anything. He had never run from a problem, no matter how big, or life threatening it had been. He was a passionate man, stopping at nothing to help whom he considered a friend, his loyalty even bigger for a family member. With him, there was no compromise. It was all or nothing, either to help a friend, or to fight an enemy.
Luke had tried to teach his sons to be like him, ruthless on both sides of the spectrum, he had tried to teach his boys about loyalty, and courage. And he had succeeded. Both his sons had the Spencer charm, that made them either adorable, or terribly obnoxious. Both boys were fiercely protective or their family, each other, and anyone whom Luke considered a friend. A friend of one of the Spencers was a friend of all the Spencers.
"Spill it, dad," Lucky said, looking at his father. Lucky knew his old man was probably lost in his thoughts, and had forgotten everything about the blond boy sitting next to him. "What do you need us to do?"
"I don't need you to do anything, Cowboy," Luke said as he patted his son's hand. "I was just wondering where you were, that's all. I'll go start dinner before your mother gets home, why don't you go upstairs and start your homework?"
Lucky saw his father get up and walk to the kitchen before the boy could say anything else. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting so weird? "All right," he agreed, but to himself, because his father had already disappeared behind the kitchen door. Lucky took his bag, stood up and ran upstairs. his father would talk when he felt ready to, or around the dinner table when Lucky would ask him again. Which ever came first.
"I have no right to tell him, before I talked with Laura," Luke muttered to himself, both his hands holding the sink, his knuckles white under the effort. He took a deep breath and stood proudly, slowly passing a hand on his face. "This is not happening!" He told himself, looking around the bright kitchen. All they had worked for, making a life here, staying out of troubles, raising their three kids, all of that was gonna go up in smoke, he just knew it.
Why? Why, after all these years, was this problem coming back to haunt them, like a shadow over their heads? At first, they always thought about it, knowing, waiting for something to fall on them, someone to come for him. But nothing had happened. Over the years, they learned to live with the fear of, one day, seeing this resurface, but again, time passed and nothing happened. The shadow started lightening, to completely disappear. Luke couldn't remember when he stopped thinking about it, when he stopped seeing the difference, when he started to forget.
"Come on, Laura, come home, we need to discuss this, before we can tell them," Luke said, looking at the kitchen door. Why did she choose that day to go visit her friend at the hospital then grocery shopping. Didn't she know their worlds was about to crumble? Couldn't she always sense it when something was wrong with one of them? She always said they had some kind of connection, even him, and she could always know when something had happened. Why wasn't she walking through that door right now, where he could run to her and hold her, and feel her heartbeat next to his, her breath on his neck? Why couldn't she come in and make everything better?
Finally, he heard keys in the door and saw her walk in, her arms full with baby on one side, and the grocery bag on the other. "Luke, can you give me a hand here?" Laura asked, closing the door with her hips and letting the grocery bag fall on the table. "You wouldn't believe the prices on some of these items. I swear, they know when the people are a little bit tighter in their budget and they higher the price. Luke? What's wrong?" She asked as she saw at how he was looking at her, and how he took a 2 year old Lulu from her arms to hold her close to his face. "Luke, you are scaring me," she repeated, hoping he would just tell her what was wrong.
"I think you better sit down for this, Angel," he said softly, sitting Lulu in her high chair and giving her a cookie. "We got a letter, while you were gone," Luke started after he sat down in front of her, "it was addressed to the both of us, so I opened it. It's from Helena Cassadine's trustee."
Luke saw Laura's face become white as a sheet, and he reached for her hands to give her the strength to absorb the news that shattered his heart. "She's awake, baby"
"What? How? I mean, she was practically dead!" Laura said, her voice rising. Luke shook his head sadly.
"I know, baby, I know, but she survived. She survived, she's alive, and she wants him,"
"Luke, no, we can't," Laura panicked, tears falling down her face. "We can't! He doesn't even know! Oh God!"
"Laura listen to me! Look at me!" He barked and she snapped her eyes up, meeting his. "She will not take him! I will not let that happen! However, we have to tell them, tonight! When she sees that we have no intention of obeying her, she'll retaliate! We have to tell them so they can be prepared!"
"Oh God, Luke, do you know what this means?" Laura sobbed, and Luke took both of her hands in his.
"Yes, I do know. It means the Spencer/Cassadine war will start again, but this time, the stakes are higher, because it isn't just us anymore. Our sons are here now, and one of them is the target!"
"I can't lose him, Luke! I can't lose my son," Laura said, begging him with her eyes to make it all better.
"You won't. I promise you, you won't. And I won't either. Laura, I promise you, there is no way Helena will win this fight. I am not giving Nikolas back to them"