Laura:How dare you deliberately keep me in ignorance when my family is strained to the breaking point and my son has been missing for months?
Luke:He wasn't missing, Laura. He just wasn't here. What else did he tell you?
Laura:He told me that Nikolas had been shot at your club.
Luke:Yes, he was-but not by me, and it wasn't fatal.
Laura:What was that? Is that an excuse or a joke?
Luke:What would you have done if you had known?
Laura:I would have come home, obviously.
Luke:The kid didn't want you here.
Laura:How do you know?
Luke:Because he said so. He could have written you a letter. He could have contacted you. I know he gets letters from you. Or he could have had his uncle do it.
Laura:Never mind what Nikolas said. You are my husband. You know how I feel about both of my sons. And if they were in pain, I had a right to know! Not telling me...It's a violation of trust.
Luke:What else did Lucky say?
Laura:He accused me of I don't know what kind of perversion for marrying you.
Luke:Well, we always said he was bright for his age.
(cut)
Laura:You have something you want to tell me?
Luke:Lucky found out. I'm sorry. I didn't want him to, but he did.
Laura:Who said that there was anything to find out? Look, when he came to you, what did he say?
Luke:He said he was sick of lies. And in that moment, so was I.
Laura:But, no, before that, what brought it up? I mean, who put this in his head?
Luke:Well, that would be your darling other son.
Laura:Nikolas? No, that's not possible
Luke:Yes, yes, and our son acted like our son. He scoped it out, he asked questions, he checked the facts. And he wasn't just doing some academic exercise. He wasn't just looking up a four-letter word. He's got this friend, Elizabeth Webber-
Laura:Yeah, he told me about that, I know.
Luke:Well, by the time it got around to me, it was just a little late to try and turn it into an inspirational tale.
Laura:Why didn't you call me? I mean, you should have called me that day, that minute. Why didn't you?
Luke:Because I didn't, because it seemed that it didn't concern you.
Laura:Oh, my god. Well, what did it concern if not me and us and what our whole family is about?
Luke:Laura, it's about men and power. It's about a young man coming into his power and an old man who abused his. It's about Lucky's hero worship crashing and burning and him hating my guts for it and me letting him because just maybe that's the first step to him being a better man than his father was. He's got this rage that I understand. I can't even be proud of it. But I felt that I had to get you out of his line of fire not only because it was fair, but because that is my job.
Laura:Oh, okay, I get it. I get it. I gave birth to two sons, and neither one of them is my business! Huh? You know, you made me choose between Nikolas and this family, and I did it. I went to him, and I told him I could be nothing more than a distant relative to him. And now what you're telling me is that the best I can hope for is to be, oh, I don't know, sort of peripheral in our son's life? You let him walk out that door without giving me the slightest clue that I might have lost another son.
Luke:As long as he loves you enough to despise me, you haven't lost him.
Laura:But, but how can anything be put right this way? You should have forced him to stay here and just work it out.
Luke:Darling, I don't force the people I love anymore. It doesn't work. It makes them angry, it makes them mistrustful. It even makes them secretive. Look, baby, I did the best I could. Next time, when it's Lulu's turn, we'll do it your way.
Laura:When I was home last week, you let me believe that he was sleeping down the hall while you made love to me. Have I been gone that long? Do I even know who you are anymore?
Luke:That's always been your particular kindness-to know and to forget.
(cut)
Laura:Elizabeth Webber? That's how this all got started?
Luke:Yeah, Lucky found her in the park and brought her here.
Laura:The park?
Luke:Near the fountain.
Laura:How old is she?
Luke:15.
Laura:She okay?
Luke:Now? They never caught the man. Of course, that happens. And then there's no chance of anything like justice being served. It's just this unresolved public atrocity, I guess. But then, how would I know? The guy did quite a number on her. I'm not sure she told anybody but Lucky. Well, there was Barbara. Lucky took off that night and went and found Barbara and brought her back so she could examine the girl, and I think that was a good idea. She's so young. Ah, Laura, she's so young. She's got this dark hair and these big eyes and baby skin, and I-I look at her, and all i can think is maybe that's what Lulu will-Lucky sort of lived through it with her, and it's left him with this boiling anger that he doesn't know what to do with. I mean, he had this friend, and she was funny and she was fearless one day, and the next day she wasn't any of those things, and-and he came to me, and he wanted me to say something. He wanted me to do something to help. He wanted to go find the guy that had done it and kill him because of what he had killed in Elizabeth. Bobbie thought I should tell him right then, but I didn't agree, and I still don't. I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other. Now, maybe that's just self-serving, but then who am I to say, huh?
Laura:Of course you shouldn't have told him. What the hell was Bobbie thinking? Why doesn't she just mind her own business? Oh. What I don't understand is whatever made you change your mind?
Luke:Lucky started making connections between what he was seeing happen to Elizabeth and what he-what he thinks happened to you with the Cassadines. And then one day he crossed paths with Nikolas and he shot off his mouth and said that Stavros was a rapist, and Nikolas took it upon himself to set the record straight.
Laura:Yeah, but still-
Luke:"Still"? Honey, "still", our son came to me and asked me flat out. What did you want me to do, lie to him?
Laura:I don't see any reason why you would have to.
Luke:Because to tell him the truth was to tell him I raped you.
Laura:What? How can you say that? How can you say that to me, of all people?
Luke:How could I not say that to you, of all people?
Laura:It-it's just not that simple. You know that.
Luke:I never said it was simple. I said it was rape.
Laura:Stop it! Will you just stop that? You don't get to just write the history of my life. Wasn't I even there? I mean-oh, I see. You think that I was just too young and too stupid to know what was happening to me back then, everybody was in such a hurry to put words in my mouth. And you're doing it. You're doing it now. No more. No more.
Luke:Laura, have you never said the word? Not even to yourself in the dark?
Laura:No, I don't have any need to see myself or you in black and white.
Luke:Well, Nikolas must have heard it somewhere.
Laura:Stefan.
Luke:Yeah, Stefan. And where did he hear it if not from you? You see, we come back around again full circle to the source. And baby, who could blame you in the middle of some lonely, soul-baring moment to say it? You thought I was dead anyway. But if you ask why our son is gone and why he spits on both of us, that is the answer.
(cut)
Laura:Do you think that I would do that-speak to an outsider about the most intimate and difficult things between us and paint you all in one color like a criminal, like an animal in his eyes?
Luke:Laura, you were alone, his brother's captive. He was sympathetic. He was commanded by Stavros, like you. He was ground under Helena's heel, like you. Maybe you didn't think of him as an outsider.
Laura:He was. And he wasn't. I mean-he was kind to me, almost like a friend. He was really my only friend. You have to understand I-I was taken away from everything that I knew or that I loved. I thought that you were dead. So, yes, I confided in him. And we did the things you do. We told each other our stories, and he asked about you and how we met and how we fell in love-you know, the kind of questions that anybody would ask.
Luke:Yes, but how did he get the answers that nobody else could?
Laura:That was his own interpretation. I mean, that must have just been his jumping to conclusions. I don't know. I guess, I guess maybe, maybe I stumbled over that one bad night and then he just assumed the rest or, you know, he put his own label on it. I swear to you, Luke, I swear.
Luke:Wait, wait, wait, wait. "One bad night"? That's how you remember it?
Laura:That's what we had. I haven't forgotten, Luke. No, I'm not delusional, and I don't have a psychological block. I know what I said to Jessie and to the police and to Scotty. But Luke, I was, our marriage is as old as I was then. And it speaks with as much authority. When we were falling in love, we had one bad night.
Luke:Oh, Laura-
Laura:And I will not go back there, I will not relive it, not for you, not for Lucky, not for anyone!
(cut)
Laura:How are we going to get Lucky back home again where he belongs? That's what we should be discussing.
Luke:Well, you saw him.
Laura:What does that mean?
Luke:Well, it's going to be a little tough getting the toothpaste back in the tube, don't you think? Look, Laura, I didn't want to open Pandora's box, believe me. But I had no choice. The monster walked in this house and took up residence here. Now, what are you going to do? You going to say to the boy, "just forget it. Come on home. Unmake your bed?" It's not going to work. And I'm sorry if you feel that I did the wrong thing, if you feel that I gave him a false version of what happened that night. But there we are.
Laura:No, no, no, no. This is not about what happened 20 years ago. This is about what's going on right now, today, which is your choosing to shut me out of both of my sons' lives. That is the part that I find unacceptable. I had a right to help Lucky through this.
Luke:How? Laura, you can't even say the word. You can't even say it to me.
Laura:No, no, I'm not-
Luke:There are certain things you can't help.
Laura:I'm not going to let you turn this into anything that it isn't okay? This is about one thing-you deliberately misled me, at best. At worst, you flat-out lied to me. And I resent it. I resent it more than I can say.
Luke:I think you're expressing yourself fairly clearly. Look maybe this evening would go a lot smoother for both of us if I just go to the club.
Laura:If you must.
Luke walks out the door, Laura calls after him.
Laura:Luke?