She awakened in the waning hours of the night, stirring slightly as she swam up from a deep, dreamless sleep and into full consciousness. Even her gentle movement caused the sleeping man next to her to shift restlessly and draw her closer. As he turned beside her, moving his right arm to rest over her left hip, it allowed her to look more easily into his face, now illuminated by an errant beam of moonlight peeking through the curtains covering the tall windows on the far side of their bedroom. Her eyes traced the beloved contours of the face she had once willed herself to forget; her fingers ached to trace his eyebrows, the feathery paths of the newer laugh lines around his eyes, the bridge of his proud nose, and the deeper lines - relics of the long, bitter years apart - stretching from either side of his nose to the corners of his sensitive mouth. In sleep his face relaxed into the gentle countenance shown only to his most intimate family members. It never failed to amaze her that others did not immediately recognize the gentle soul animating this intensely masculine body, as readily as she had so many years ago. Contenting herself with her visual inspection of the sleeper beside her, Laura allowed herself to be caught up in memories of the long, strange journey which had finally brought her here, to this place, this time, into the arms of this fierce and tender man.
Their relationship had begun in moonlight, she thought, as she watched the flickering moonlight shift from his face to halo his pale hair. In moonlight and desperation. Laura recalled her frantic flight across the island, the sound of the guards and dogs in full pursuit, as if it were yesterday. At every opportunity, she bolted, each time running in a different direction, trying to get a mental picture of the island’s layout. Stavros, enraged and embarassed by her determined attempts to escape him, guaranteed her a return to chains as a reward for any future rebellion. But one summer night, distracted by urgent business, Stavros had sent her upstairs to change for dinner without escort. Opportunities for flight were few, and she did not hesitate. Having previously exhausted all possibilities for flight except moving south from the villa, Laura had moved quietly and stealthily for at several minutes before she heard the warning sirens and the excited dogs begin to bark. The stranger stood alone in the moonlight, dressed in white - a possible source of salvation?  Her hopes for flight were dashed that night when the kind stranger, unbelievably a Cassadine, had confirmed her worst fears. There would be no escape from the island - unless someone wanted her to leave.
Stefan shifted in his sleep, uttering a low moan. Laura instantly returned to the present, anxiously glancing down at his chest. Nothing about him repulsed her: not the misery caused by his family, nor the bitterness and upheaval resulting from his explosive return into her life, or the reddened, angry scar left by the bullet aimed at his sister, Alexis. The night of the shooting lingered in her memory as a jumbled set of scenes, which unreeled in her memory as if they had all happened in slow motion. The heady scent of the spring-blooming flowers she had been enjoying on her porch, juxtaposed with her first look at Lucky’s face as he ran up her sidewalk. By the time they arrived at the hospital, frantic hospital staff members were already wheeling Stefan down the hall toward surgery.   Nikolas, completely losing his composure, had flung himself at his father , terrified that there would never be another chance to express his love. Laura, moving forward to comfort her grief-stricken son, had realized that Stefan was still conscious. In that moment, all her uncertainties vanished forever.
Cradling her tall son’s head against her shoulder, she had looked into Stefan’s eyes and whispered, “You and my children will have my every loyalty”.  An ashen Stefan visibly struggled to respond. In a voice so low that it might almost have been imagined he had whispered, “In that case I shall live.”  Laura marveled that any love could have survived the separation, anger and betrayals that had marked their relationship prior to that thirty seconds in a hospital corridor. Nothing, as she had told him before, was ever to be simple for the two of them.  As each of them had supported the other in dealing with their guilt over past mistakes, trust had grown slowly. Helena, Alexis, Luke, differences over the children, were all complicating factors, but she knew now that every cruel comment about Stefan’s obsessive nature had been wrong. Whenever she stumbled, he helped her pick herself up, dusted her off, and set her firmly on her own two feet again. He wanted all of her, and to gain that end, he had freed her, finally, to be herself. His loving generosity astonished her even now.
The night before their wedding, she laughingly asked “ Why me? You embarass me with your financial settlements, and all the papers you have insisted I sign today. You have made me financially independent of you for life. Why? What can I bring you? I don’t have money. I’m no aristocrat. I’m not even well-educated like you are”.   His direct look, his husky voice, were engraved in her memory along with his simple response, “You bring me peace”.
Laura was startled out of her reverie by the quick movements of her husband as he suddenly rolled her sideways and onto her back.
“And why are you so pensive at this early hour?” he queried. “Look, the night is still fading. Is there a problem you have failed to share with me?’
A smile lit up her face. “No, I was just admiring you. Do you mind?”
“The day I mind being loved by you will require my immediate admission to GH for intensive sychological treatment!” he declared emphatically, punctuating his comments with enthusiastic kisses to carefully chosen spots on her neck, shoulders, and collarbones.
“ How early is it?” he inquired.
“I think dawn is breaking just now”, laughed Laura, disentangling herself from her husband long enough to pull the curtains open. “Let’s watch the day begin,”she said, as she leaped back onto the bed. He wrapped his arms around her, as the two of them silently watched the first rays of the sun begin to reflect off the water. As the sun crept higher, its rays reached into the bedroom lighting it with a rosy glow.
Sighing contentedly, Laura pulled back and asked. “Are you concerned about the time? I enjoy being held by you so much that it makes me thoughtless. Do you have an early meeting?”
“No, I was simply, as always, calculating how to make this situation work to my own advantage. My earliest meeting today is with LesleyLu. She should come hurtling in the door, demanding a piggyback ride to breakfast in about forty minutes.”
“Now, said Laura, looking at him with a wicked gleam in her eyes. “ I begin to follow your train of thought”.
“Indeed. Do you remember how puzzled I was the first time you suggested that we indulge in some good, clean fun?” Your reference completely eluded me. He smiled. “I thought you were referring to some sort of event where adolescents are herded into a big group for games under oppressive adult supervision or that perhaps you wanted me to accompany you and Lesley Lu on some sort of excursion.”
“But you do the appreciate the concept, now, don’t you? Want to race me to the bathroom?”
“I could count to ten, and give you a headstart, but you must remember that in my family no one ever plays fair!”
With a whoop, Laura jumped out of bed, closely followed by her husband. Their day had begun with the first light of the morning sun.

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