Author: Regency

Title: In Another Time and Place Alternate History

Pairings: Luke/Laura, Luke/Holly, implied Laura/Stefan, implied Laura/Stavros

Summary: Laura escaped Cassadine Island with baby Nikolas in 1983 but didn't dare go back to Port Charles for fear of recapture. After several years on the run, Laura & Nikolas take refuge in the only safe place left for them with the Cassadines on their trail. But, their only hope of getting out of Port Charles alive is to abandon hope for what might have been once and for all. With a conflicted yet convincing Luke Spencer in the picture, nothing's ever been harder.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters recognizable as being from General Hospital. They are the property of their actors, producers, writers, and studios, not me. No copyright infringement was intended and no money was made in the writing or distribution of this story. It was good, clean fun. Any dialogue lifted from any episode of the above is borrowed with love.

~!~

Laura shushed her son's chattering when she heard a scuffling at the door. Her scalp prickled. There was a knock.

She snapped her fingers and pointed Nik towards his empty backpack, mouthing "Pack!" urgently. Though the men at the door were familiar to her, they were by no means family friends.

Laura crept to her bedroom to retrieve the bag she kept ready in her closet, sparing a thought to grab a wig off a theater head on her vanity. Nik appeared with bulging knapsack in hand at her door. She questioned whether he'd need everything he'd packed, but there wasn't a moment to waste. The knocking had turned to banging, and it was coming from the front door and the back.

At least two men, possibly more. Experience had taught her to expect the worst.

Nik grabbed her hand to lead her down the short staircase to the ground floor. He seemed to know just where he was taking her and soon she figured it out, too. The cellar.

The cellar boasted a battalion of dusty wine bottles worth more than their lives combined. Part of their rent was forgiven on the promise of Laura overseeing the amateur sommelier's growing collection of rare vintages. Laura detoured a moment to snag one of the more expensive bottles to sell on their way. She wouldn't be getting her next paycheck, this would have to do.

Her son directed her to the low-slung windows covered in velvet panels to keep out light. They were just big enough to crawl through. Nik didn't have to explain; Laura was already scrambling up the pegs of an empty wine rack to ease their way out. The windows were securely locked, but they were nothing against the bottle of 1964 Beaune and Laura's persistence.

A door upstairs gave way with a mighty crack, just in time for Laura to shove the window out of its frame. Nik scrambled up the rack over the sill with a boost on his mother's legs. Laura wasted no time scurrying up after him. The element of surprise escape was on their side, but that would only buy them minutes.

Luck was with them tonight. It was long enough.