Title: May These Words Find You
Rating: PG at best
Pairing: Laura/Scotty (implied), Luke/Laura
Summary: Laura leaves Luke messages everywhere he goes and everywhere she's been.
Author's Notes: Set during Laura's blink and you'll miss it return in 2013.
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.
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Australia
Lady Jane is a bust. Not because the lady doesn't sympathize, but she isn't there when Luke arrives. The Jacks compound is quiet. The landing strip running alongside is vacant with an air of disuse and melancholy. Even the posted guards are asleep on the job when he skulks past. Laura said she'd been here only weeks ago, but Luke doubts there's been a Jacks in residence for months.
The front door is locked, not that it's any match for Luke and his best pick. He slips inside and shuts the door behind him with an almost silent click. I still got it.
A faint beeping draws his attention to a blinking keypad on the wall. A security system. They're filthy rich, of course they've got the works. He grabs a handkerchief out of his pocket to rub the sweat from his face. The trek here took a lot out of him and there wasn't much left in him to start with.
He stares at the keypad a minute, baffled as to why Laura wouldn't have mentioned the damned alarm system. Then, he remembers. Damn, she's good. Luke fell asleep on the flight back to New York. Neither of them had been up for a drive and they'd wanted to see Lulu's little girl pronto. Luke had slept like a log while Laura claimed she wasn't tired. That was that for the flight, except for one odd moment that sticks out in his mind.
She had touched him. Luke's sure of it. Just before they'd descended on JFK, she'd touched his face and laid a hand on his chest. She'd said something, he can't remember what. He thought he'd dreamt it.
He reaches into his breast pocket and finds a note written in Laura's handwriting.
"Aloysius," he reads to himself. "The hell?"
All the same, Luke types in the code and the alarm deactivates in a bevy of blinking lights. He exhales in relief and goes on his way, putting the card back where he found it, next to his heart. I'm getting sentimental in my old age. But then, he doesn't think the hiding place was accidental. Subtle as ever, angel.
He makes slow work of the house, turning over each room with a light touch and ever aware of the top of the line security system going blithely unaware of his presence thanks to Laura.
She's carrying around the Rock of Gibraltar, courtesy of Baldwin. How can I compete with that? He tells himself that he won't try, that he's done with that triangle from hell. He's done chasing. Like she chased me? Baldwin must have been tickled pink about that. The thought puts some pep in his step and gets him through the rest of his search that much quicker.
Luke doesn't find anything damning or useful in the house and makes his way out the back doors before the guardsmen wake up to make their late afternoon rounds.
He's slipping off the property by way of the veranda when something bright gold and glimmering in the waning sunlight catches his eye. What at first looks to be a piece of garbage gone astray turns out to be a cigar band encasing a rolled-up bit of paper nestled among Lady Jane's yellow heirloom roses. Luke's fingers tingle when he touches it and he isn't sure if that's a symptom or what of.
'Bruges.'
Laura's writing again. Luke doesn't know if this is a password or a rendezvous point, but he knows where he's headed next.
Angel, what are you up to?