Against the Grain-- Chapter 2
Luke walked up to his long time home with Dani close behind him. He looked at the house that he had so long called home. He felt comfortable and sad all at the same time.
He stood at the door for a moment, wondering whether or not to knock.
Dani smiled at his indecision and stepped froward and rang the doorbell. She then stepped back behind Luke. Luke smiled, as he thought that that was exactly what her mother would have done. She seemed nervous. Dani had met Laura several times but he guessed this would be different.
The door opened slowly and the little dark-haired princess peaked out from behind the door. Luke smiled fondly at the girl.
“Lulu, no don’t open the door without Mommy.” A voice came from inside the house. The door opened further to reveal the beautiful blond-haired woman that Luke had always seen as his angel.
“Princess! What are you doing? You know you should always listen to your Mommy.” Luke said swinging her up into her arms.
“Luke, I didn’t think I’d see you until later tonight.” She said opening the door further letting both Luke and Dani inside.
Laura looked at Dani curiously. The last time Laura had seen Dani was at least six years ago so she wouldn’t necessarily recognize her.
“We came straight from the airport.” Was Luke’s only reply. He put Lulu back down.
“Who’s that?” Lulu said pointing at Dani.
“Honey, don’t be rude.” Laura said, but her eyes said that she wanted to know too.
“It’s all right. Hi Lulu, I’m Dani.” She said smiling widely. Dani bent down to the little girl’s level.
Laura looked at Luke with an astonished look on her face.
“I brought you a present.” Dani said taking stuffed alligator out from behind her back. “See I brought him from Florida, where I live… used to live.”
Lulu’s eyes lit up and she held the toy tight to her chest.
“Dani, I didn’t even recognize you. You’re so grown up. You look exactly like your mother.” Laura paused slightly. “Where’s Grace?”
Dani’s eyes drifted quickly to the carpet.
“Lulu, honey why don’t you go introduce ‘Al’ there to your other animals.” Luke said softly to the little girl.
“Okay Daddy.” And she scampered up the stairs quickly.
“Luke?” Laura said questioningly.
“Laura you better sit down.” Luke said leading Dani to the couch.
Laura sat gingerly on the chair knowing whatever Luke had to tell her, it was bad.
Luke looked at Laura and sighed, he really didn’t know how to tell her this. A small part of him wanted her to know how he felt when Nikolas had come to town. True, he hadn’t known about Dani, but Luke knew it wouldn’t ‘feel’ any different to Laura.
“Well there’s no easy way to say this… Grace died earlier this week.” Luke winced inwardly. He knew that wasn’t what he was going to tell her, but he just didn’t want to hurt her anymore. Also, a part of him was screaming that this information would send her straight into the arms of the bat.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry Danni.” Laura said sincerely, she had never really liked Grace too much, but she wouldn’t wish her dead, especially for Dani’s sake. Grace had always had a connection with Luke that Laura had resented. One thing about Dani; She did look exactly like her mother, except for the eyes.
“Thank you Laura.” Dani said shooting a nervous glare at Luke.
Luke looked up and past Laura. There was his son, leaning against the wall. He had a smirk on his face and he was shaking his head like he was amused.
“So is that why you came to Port Charles? I know Luke’s your Godfather, but you can’t be younger than 21. It’s not exactly like you need a guardian.”
“Laura…” Luke started to interrupt
“I’m not trying to be rude. It’s just that young women usually like to be on their own and it’s not like you’re around a lot.” She said pointedly.
“Laura, I asked her to come here.” Luke took a long breath and decided to just spit it out. “I asked her to come, because I wanted to spend time with my daughter.”
All of the air went right out of Laura’s lungs and her face went pale.
“Your daughter?”
“I’ll go check on Lulu.” Dani said and made a quick dash up the stairs.
“Luke?”
Luke took a deep breath. “I just found out. Grace never told me”
“Oh come on Luke, you had to have at least known that she could have been yours.” Laura said angrily.
“By the time I found out that she had had a kid we were up to our eyeballs in that Ice Princess mess and she had a husband. So no it didn’t really occur to me to do the math!” Luke said heatedly.
“Did you love her?” Laura asked softly.
Luke was silent for a long moment. “In a way, yes. But not the way she wanted me to.”
“You’re probably getting a kick out of this, aren’t you? Are you enjoying this Luke?” Laura spat.
“I didn’t plan this…”
“No you didn’t but you’re still enjoying the fact that now I know how you felt when you found out about Nikolas. Am I right?”
“Yeah, a part of me wanted you to know what I felt. But I’m not doing this to hurt you. I just want her to know her family. And I just wanted to tell you before I told Lulu.” Luke said calmly.
“How considerate of you.” Laura said sarcastically. “What? Do you plan on being a father to her? You haven’t even seen Lulu for a month and before that you saw her not more than once a week!”
“That was a low blow Laura.” Luke said shaking his head. He hated it but it was mostly the truth. “You know I love my daughter. I may not be the best father or the best role model, but I do what I can. It’s been a little bit of a hard year Laura.”
“We’ve both been hit hard Luke.” Laura said, her voice full of emotion.
“I know.”
“So am I the first to know about this or does Felicia already know? Or was she with you at Grace’s funeral?” Laura said spitefully.
“I didn’t go to the funeral and you are the first to know about this.” Luke said through gritted teeth. He took a deep breath to calm down. He didn’t come here to fight with her. He looked around the room. Suddenly he felt so tired, tired of fighting. His eyes traveled to the fireplace. All those pictures, all those memories. And there was Lucky leaning up against the fireplace looking completely serene. As was the case lately Lucky’s presence was a comfort to Luke, even if it was only in his head. Luke turned back to Laura.
“I want you to be there when I tell Lulu about her sister.”
Laura nodded silently and walked to the stairs. “Lulu, Dani, could you girls come downstairs please?”
A few seconds later Lulu came barreling down the stairs with Dani not far behind her.
“Lulu honey, come sit on Daddy’s lap.”
The little girl climbed onto Luke’s lap and sat happily. Dani sat down next to them and Laura took a seat in the chair.
“Honey, you know how Nikolas is your brother, and he’s Mommy’s son and not Daddy’s?” Luke said carefully.
The little girl nodded. “Yeah, Nikolas is my half brother.”
“Well you have a half sister too. Dani is your sister.”
The little girl’s eyes lit up and she launched herself into Dani’s arms. Just as they had hoped Lulu was only concentrating on the fact that she had a sister.
“I’ve never had a real sister before!” Lulu cried happily as Dani laughed. “Lizzy said she could be my pretend sister, but I have a real sister now. I want my real sister and my pretend sister to meet and then they can be sisters too!”
All three adults laughed.
Lulu’s face brightened even more as another thought occurred to her. “I have brothers too! You can meet them…” Then her face fell slightly. “Well you can’t meet Lucky cause he’s gone, but he’ll be back.” She said firmly.
Laura looked heartbroken. “Lulu honey, you remember we told you that Lucky was in Heaven, with the angles.”
Lulu took on an understanding face and then turned to Dani and whispered, but Luke and Laura could still hear her. “Mommy doesn’t think Lucky’s coming back. But he has before and Daddy always comes back when he leaves.”
Luke swallowed the lump of guilt that rose in his throat at that statement.
Dani smiled slightly and looked into the little girl’s eyes. “You just have to remember that wherever Lucky is, that he loves you and he misses you.”
Lulu smiled and nodded her head. “I know and I miss Lucky too. Nikolas isn’t nearly as good at roller blading as Lucky is.”
“
Honey why don’t you go and get ready for your ballet lesson. We have to leave in a few minutes.” Laura said quietly.
“Sure Mommy. Bye Dani, bye Daddy.” Lulu said giving both them a hug and then ran up the stairs.
Laura sighed. “Well Dani where are you staying while you’re in town?” She asked all too politely.
Luke glared at Laura and answered before Danni could. “We’re moving into the Brownstone. I’m going to be staying there permanently and Dani’s gonna stay with me until she finds a place or until she gets sick of me which ever comes first.” He said with a grin. “I thought it’d be better for her to be closer to family. Lulu’s there a lot too so that’ll be good.”
Laura nodded silently. An uncomfortable silence fell over them.
“Well we better be going. I still have to tell Bobbie about this news.” Luke said with a mischievous grin on his face.
At the astonished look on Laura’s face he just grinned and said. “Don’t give me that look Laura. I told her that I was going to live there, I just haven’t told her about Dani yet.”
Laura rolled her eyes and smiled.
Luke and Dani got up and walked towards the door.
“Lulu’s going to be over at Bobbie’s this afternoon so you’ll see her there.” Laura said softly.
“All right.” Luke said.
“It was nice to see you again Laura.” Dani said nervously.
Laura just nodded stiffly at the young woman.
She sighed as she shut the door behind them. She fought back tears and walked over to the table behind the couch. She opened one of the drawers and took out her wedding ring. She had told herself and Stefan that her marriage to Luke was over, maybe it was but for some reason her feelings didn’t die with her marriage. Why couldn’t it be that easy? Why couldn’t she just let go and then she wouldn’t be feeling this pain. Why did it hurt so bad? Luke hadn’t even known her when he slept with Grace and he hadn’t even known he’d had a daughter. But still for years she thought she had given Luke his first child. And now that child was dead and for some reason she felt like part of her connection to Luke was dead too.
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