Chapter 3:

The empty bottles were lined on the bar next to him. He had been systematically rearranging them every time a new one was added, which had been basically every few hours. He was headed for the record of longest consecutive drinking without dying from alcoholism. "Of course, this would be where I could find my completely useless ex-husband," he heard from the corner. The voice echoed of the walls and drifted past him.

"Yeah…," he hardly opened his mouth.

"Luke, what the hell are you doing here at drinking at 7:30am?" She yelled and he didn't even flinch, but rather took his next swallow.

"Dad?" A different voice had come and caught his attention. It could have been the word rather than the person it was coming from, but nevertheless it warranted a reaction. "What's going on?"

"Well…Ethan…" His words were slurred and nearly incoherent.

"I have never seen him this drunk," Ethan told Tracy as if his father wasn't right before him tripping over himself even though he was already sitting. "Did something happen?"

"Yes… Your sister…"

"Something happened to Lulu?" Tracy interrupted and her posture changed to the upright position in full attention.

"Some bastard raped my daughter," Luke told the bottles and not his family.

"Lulu was raped!" Tracey yelled. "Where is she? Is she in the hospital? Has she talked to the police?" After waiting impatiently for no response she watched as her former step-son slab the newly filled glass right out of his father's hand.
"You're saying some monster hurt my sister and you're just sitting here getting pissed?" Each word hit a new pitch and his face had started to turn red. "What kind of father are you! Do you even know where she is?"

"She's at Sonny's," he murmured, which was immediately followed by a small course of scoffs and the pounding stomps of his son's boots on the floor boards as his younger son stormed out.

"This is a new low for you, Luke," she spoke up after Ethan could no longer be heard. "You don't usually stand by and watch as your daughter gets hurt."

"She's already been hurt."

"And you're not going to do anything? Just sit here and drown your sorrows in a barrel of scotch? Are you even going to try to see her? Make sure she's okay?"

"She's not okay. She's not going to be okay, and she certainly doesn't want to see me."

"And what makes you so sure about that?"

"What just happened to her… what he did to her… everything she just went through… she knows I did the same thing to her mother. I hurt her mother in the exact same way, and now she's felt it. She's felt the hell I did to Laura. My daughter shouldn't be anywhere near me."

"Then don't see Lulu and don't try to comfort her and take care of her, but don't sit on your ass in his bar feeling sorry for yourself either. It's not about you. There's some guy out there that took your little girl and did the worst thing possible to her. Don't leave that unchecked."

"Lulu!" she bellowed as she entered the house. "Lulu!"

"What do you want, Carly?" She jumped and turned around to see her former target sitting in a ball on the couch. Lulu had her legs pulled up completely against her chest with her arms wrapped around them. From the small pieces of the girl not covered by clothing she could see bruise upon bruise, and the bandage that nearly covered her entire neck. The bile started to rise to the back of her throat.

"How are you?" she asked cautiously.

"Why does that matter?" She sounded as if the emotion had been sucked directly out of her soul. No anger, no hurt, nothing that could be mistaken for happiness, but pure unadulterated nonexistence.

"What do you mean? Of course it matters!"

"Really? Hate me so much you had to come here and make sure I was really hurt? Come to laugh a little?"

"I love you, Lulu. I would never want to see you hurt like this."

"You love me? But I thought you hated me. I mean….that's what you offered Brook Lynn $50,000 to take pictures of her seducing Dante." Her distant disposition hadn't change and that cautioned Carly. She slowly sunk down in the chair she had been standing next to, licked her lips and smoothed her skirt in front of her with her hands. She looked directly at Lulu for a sold moment and held back her own tears.

"I made a mistake, and I was so hurt that I put it all on you and Dante. But I did call Brook and I called the whole thing off. I even paid her to just drop the whole thing, especially any involvement with Dante."

"I know. Sonny told me. He didn't expect me to over hear him yelling at Brook for getting involved in something so petty and stupid. He said that she told him you called her. That she felt that your plan was ridiculous but she needed the money. She must have been desperate if she was willing to whore herself out."

"It was stupid, and I was stupid. I should have just been happy that Dante worked to correct it all and got Michael out of jail. I was angry and hurt and I wanted everyone else to feel the same."

"Including me? Especially me?"

"Including you. Especially Dante."

"I would give anything to take it back, Lulu. I would give anything to not waste that time. I want to make it up to you."

"I'm not sure it works that way. I don't know how to feel, and to be perfectly honest I just don't want to deal with it," she delicately picked herself up off the couch and headed to the stairs without looking back at her cousin. "You can leave the way you came."

His feet hurt from the kicks he laid on various inanimate objects along his walk from his work and home to the docks. No amount of artificial pain was going to take away the burn that went from the bottom of his belly directly to his eyes. It had been forever since the last time he had cried, he almost couldn't remember, and yet the thought of his sister in any kind of pain made him raw. His foot met the bench three times before he finally landed a punch out of pure rage. The cold crass wood of the bench fought back and busted open the skin surrounding his knuckles. "Son of a…" he yelled at the bench and shook his hand so it could be soothed by the chilled air.

"You okay, man?" His friend casually walked up to him sipping his coffee.

"No." His accent was thick and his head hung in his hands as he plopped himself down on the bench he was previously abusing.

"What's going on?" Johnny asked while he sat and leaded back into the corner of the bench.

"Somebody attacked my sister," he crackled. Johnny sat up sharply and nearly chocked on his coffee. "They…ah, they raped her. And now she's held up at Sonny's, and Luke is just drinking as if it's going to do any good."

"Has anyone seen her?"

"No. She won't see anyone. Anyone, but Sonny. That I seriously don't understand."

"When Lulu and I were together it wasn't a big deal for her to run to Sonny. She loved him like family, and did most of her life. He fooled her like he fooled everyone else for a long time."

"Yeah, but she hates him now. He nearly killed her boyfriend. I saw the way she went after Elizabeth for just hurting her brothers, but Sonny actually endangered people she loved."

"She probably feels safer there. Like, when Lulu was in danger….Sonny would take care of her. He'd make her stay at his house or go away with Jason. It was just her normal life before she met Dante."

"You make it sound so rational."

"I've just… I've seen Lulu after she's been in a crisis. I've scene her and loved her after terrible things happened in her life. Her instincts are to run and hide."

"Just like Luke's."

Sneak Peak: Lulu confides in Jason, and where Dante has been.

Author's Note: I love the reviews and especially these theories. I've had a good giggle at some while others completely confuse me. I can't say if anyone has gotten it right yet, but please keep them coming.