At Wyndemere... Stefan is reading a book (with those cute little nerd glasses on) and Laura enters...
Mrs. Lansbury: Mrs. Spencer to see you sir
Stefan turns around and looks surprised. Laura gives him a half smile.
Stefan: Your audacity seems to have no bounds, what are you doing here?
Laura: I came to say I'm sorry
S: Alright, what are you sorry for this time?
L: All of it. The deception and how much it hurt you and Nikolas and the things that were said. I know I can't make it right, I just want the chance to explain.
S: You want me to understand why you did what you did?
L: Yes
S: That will never happen
L: You told me that Helena knew my mother was still alive, I had to protect her, I could not lose her twice.
S: I have no quarrel with protecting your mother, I did it myself for years, it's your methods that escape me.
L: You were never supposed to have know. I intended to stay away forever
S: Oh really? Well you told Nikolas you always intended to come back for him.
L: I know
S: and the truth?
L: I would have come back... for him
S: Your compancity for self delusion is exceeded only by your lack of regard for others. You were never coming back, those were merely words you said to keep Nikolas from hating you.
L: No, I meant them
S: and how were you planning to accomplish this touching mother/son reunion? Leap out from behind your headstond as he was placing daisies at your grave?
L: I don't know. I would have found a way
S: My deepes wish is that when you finally do leave Port Charles again, that it will be the final time that boy sees you.
L: No, that's just it, I am staying here, I am going to rebuild my life here for my children, all of my children, and my mother.
S: What does your mother have to do with staying in Port Charles?,P. L: She's responding to people who knew her and we believe that this is probably the best possible place for her to recover.
S: Well... you bring me interesting news. your mother's making progress and you're going to remain in Port Charles. Now, let me give you a piece of news, I no longer have the slightest interest in you or any one in your family.
L: You kep my mother alive all those years, I thought you might want to know it wasn't in vain.
S: How much progress has she made?
L: Well, Audry Hardy came to visit and they were reminising about their past and my mother remembered something she actually spoke. It was very hopeful.
S: Then she's communicating?
L: No, not exactly, but she has lucid moments.
S: oh, well, you didn't come here to catch me up on your mother's medical break throughts, so, why don't you tell me why you're really here.
L: Alright, I need you to understand how important it is for my mtoher to be in a safe place.
S: In other words you're asking for protection from Helena?
L: The fued between our families has got to sop. I am asking you to help me do that.
S: So, you're asking me to protect you from me?
L: ... I... I thought we.. we would work together.
S: I don't think so.
L: Oh God, I know I hurt you... I ... I'm sorry... but please try to put yourself in my shoes, I thought my mother was dead and then I found out she was alive and in Cassadine hands, I reacted impulsivly. I didn't know what else to do.
S: I thought we had reached a new place Lasha. I had hoped we could build something.. you and I and Nikolas. The night I took you to your mother, the night of your grand deception, I opened all the doors of my heart to you. Do you remember what you did?
L: I kissed you.
S: Like Judas! I thought it was a kiss of gratitude, understanding, even I dare dream.. love, but you know what it was... it was a kiss of farewell... like this (Stefan grabs her and pulls her into a major kiss)
Laura pushes him away
L: No
S: You kissed me like that and walked into a building that exploded only seconds later. Did you ever wonder what that was like for me... watching that building explode again and again, thinking you were inside?
L: Of course I did, I felt for you
S: You felt for me? Well let me tell you what I felt, an overpowering desire to save you, a serge of energy that sent me rushing toward a burning building. Then a second explosion, hotter and more violent than the first threw me to the ground. The building was an inferno. I knew there was no way you nor Lesley had survived. I was devastated.
L: I'm sorry with all my heart.
S: and what if I had made it into that building and died tring to save your life and left Nikolas with no one? Or was that part of your plan as well?
L: No
S: You knew the building was going to explode.
L: No, not exactly, but there was a signal when I first got there so I knew there was some sort of a plan in motion but I didn't know exactly what it was.
S: When did it begin?
L: what?
S: The deception. I want to know precisly when you set out to destroy me.
L: What does it matter now?
S: Alright, I'll guess. Luke planting drugs on Nikolas, surely that had something to do with it. Your hoax of a marrital separation, what else... oh yes, the threat on my life. you lied to me, you plotted against me, you malined me to the world and then you did the one thing you knew would hurt me most, you kissed me and died and left your first born son motherless. And I promise you yet one more pathetic apology will not wipe away this betrayal.
S: Have you ever taken inventory?
L: Inventory? I don't know what you mean
S: ON our relationship, assessed what I've done for you, what you've done for me. I have quite a few points in my column. Arranging for Nikolas to save your daughter's life, reuniting mother and son. Saving your other son's life. I saved your mother's life and kept her alive all those years and raised your son. In your column... nothing.
L: Alright, you want to build a case against me, go ahead, you can, but I know you better than you think and everything you have done has been because you wanted something bad and that's why you are angry, because you didn't get what you wanted. So, please don't stand here pretending to be magnanimous, because you have kept the fued between our families going by using mothers and children and life and death and some kind of a demented game that you insist on playing with my husband. You have become a monster, your cruel, your calculating... (Laura stops and has a frightened look on her face)
S: (raising his eyebrows) go on
L: I didn't mean that, I came here to make things better I swear I...
S: but I won't let you.
L: why not?
S: Because I'm a monster, isn't that right? No compassion, no honor, no conscience.. and no forgiveness.
S: I spent a great deal of my life learning to control my emotions. The one feeling I could never conquer was my love for you... until now.
L: Hating me isn't the answer.
S: And why not? Becasue you wanted to use me one last time? Never again.
L: Stefan please.
S: You know, you think the Cassadines are so vicious and so horrible and from your prospective, that may be true, but never -- never have we traded on love and feelings the way you have. There are names for women like you. But mark me and mark me well, I will not allow you to come here and whore your way out of taking responsibility for the damage you have done.
L: You bastard
Bobbie enters...
Later on the peer on Spoon Island Laura is waiting for the boat and Stefan comes outside...
S: You look surprised. Did you expect me to stay at the house and comfort my wife?
L: Hardly
S: You know Barbara has a tendancy to overstate the obvious, but she's right. your appologies are repetitious and ineffective.
L: I was protecting my mother.
S: Oh yes, and she's safe now and having lucid moments, but the price was very high Lash. A debt is owed, one of many.
L: What do you want?
S: the truth... they say it sets you free. All these years I kept silent for your sake, but now it's clear you hate us and my silence is finished.
Laura looks horrified
S: You called me a monster, but no monster would ever do what you did to your son. He grieved for you. He weeped at your grave, real tears, unlike yours. You told Nikolas you loved him, made him believe and then threw him away as if he were nothing. The lies you told me, the false kiss goodbye, those things I could overlook but you hurt your son knowingly, deliberately and for that... so help me God, I will make you pay.
L: I am paying. He rejected me, he told me I was dead to him. That's burned in my memory and I'll carry that with me for the rest of my life. What more could you possibly want?
S: I think you know
L: You can't. (she's very upset) But.. there's no need... alright, if my mother recovers..
S: (interupts her) Do you think I care what happens to your mother?
L: If she recovers, I promis you she will not press charges no matter what she remembers.
S: It doesn't matter what she remembers. i can take the one thing you've ever valued. i can make you lose your love forever.
L: (desperately...) no... please... please
S: Please... such a pretty word, but so useless. But I loved you once and I'll give you this, I won't speak yet and I'll warn you before I do.
L: Thank you (she starts to cry)
S: Oh.. don't mistake it for kindness, I can tell the truth when ever I need to. Until then, remember, your happiness comes at my mercy!