Lily hung up the phone and placed it in her pocket. Noah's words rolled around in her head and she frowned. Part of her wanted to be angry at the young man. Who did he think he was talking to her that way? She was certain that he had a little more respect than that. On the other hand though, she couldn't help but think that he was on to something. Surely there would have been word about Luke by now if he weren't capable of taking care of himself. Was this brain surgery really necessary?

She tried to think about all the reasons the surgery had been necessary almost a year ago. There had been swelling on his brain. He was having headaches and there was a lot of memory loss. Noah and Holden both had insisted that the surgery wasn't needed, but Damian thought they should do it. She had been so worried about Luke…so concerned for his well-being that she had closed her ears to what He may have wanted.

She had a right to worry…this was her baby, her first born, and she only wanted what was best for him. When he had collapsed at lunch that day she had been so scared. Then he lapsed into a coma…and then he went through all those tests. Just thinking about it made her frown. If she could find him she would not push for the surgery. She only wanted Luke to be okay…she wanted her baby to be the man he was meant to be. That was why the surgery was important…right?

"Did you have any luck, Cara?" Damian's voice drew her out of her thoughts and she turned to face him a frown set on her face.

"I called Noah. He is going to keep an eye out for Luke. I sincerely doubt Luke would know where to find him though. I mean we don't even know where Noah went after you sent him away."

"I didn't send him away. He left."

"He left, and Luke disappeared. You might as well have been the one to send him out of town. You never liked him," Lily countered. If anything happened to my son, I am holding you responsible, Damian."

"IF anything happens to our son, it will be the fault of that husband of yours. Taking him out the hospital like that. What was he thinking Lily?"

He may have been the only one thinking about Luke," Lily countered her thoughts once again focusing on what Noah had said to her on the phone. If they wanted Luke to stop running, perhaps they needed to give him what he wanted. Even if in the end they did the surgery anyway…at least they would have made sure everything went smoothly. Luke would thank them for this later. "Where's our next step?" she asked focusing her full attention on Damian who was sipping on a cup of coffee.

"We continue to head west until we find him, Cara. There is a whole country left to explore."

"You can't be serious, Damian," Lily sighed running a frustrated hand through her hair. "I don't think this is the way to look for him. We've been at this for four months now. I'm starting to wonder if Luke even needs to be found. Maybe we need to rethink this."

"Cara, we need to think about Luke here. He could be anywhere totally confused waiting for us to locate him. Do you want to let him down again?"

"No, of course not. I just don't know what to do, Damian. This isn't working. No one has seen him, and we keep hitting dead ends."

"I'm sure we will find him soon. At some point he will have to slow down, and once he does we will get him the help he needs. "

"I'll give you another month," Lily decided after a moment's thought. "If we haven't found him by his birthday then we will do things my way."

"Which would be what exactly?" Damian inquired. Lily rolled her eyes at his bored tone and shook her head at him.

"I think wherever Luke is he is very resourceful. And the thing is we need to get him to come to us. He needs to know that what we are doing is for his own good…so maybe we need to make a television appeal for him. He is always watching television, so he could catch the commercial."

"That's not a bad idea, except that Luke thinks we want to harm him. He's not going to call us on his own. That would be a waste of time that we don't' have."

'It's been four months, Damian," Lily pointed out. "Thank god there haven't been any reports of Luke's death… I would know if he was gone."

"Don't stress yourself out," Damian rested his hands on Lily's shoulders. "Our son will be found and we will make him better. I just hope that your husband didn't do much damage."

"Holden wouldn't do anything to hurt Luke," Lily insisted. She knew that much about her husband and she missed him. She missed her children and part of her wished she could be back at home with them. Ethan was still a baby and it made her heart ache to be so far away from him this long. But Luke was her baby too, and her first priority had to be him. She had so much to make up for with him…she just wanted him to be her little boy again.

"If it weren't for Holden we wouldn't be in this mess," Damian snapped once again pulling Lily out of her thoughts. "Now come on, we have a plane to catch. My sources say there is a lead in Texas, the Lubbock area."

Damien turned and walked ahead, leaving Lily no choice but to follow. She rolled her eyes again and allowed her mind to drift back to the conversation she had with Noah. That young man had made a lot of sense, and Lily found she actually missed him. He had been the only one who would listen to Luke, the one who seemed to understand him. Was he right? Should she listen more? She thought about it more as she and Damian boarded the plane. By the time they were flying amongst the clouds she was really starting to think that following Damian was not the smartest idea.

For what seemed like the umpteenth time Lily peeked into the window trying to see what was going on inside the precinct. She didn't understand why Damian had insisted she wait out there in the sweltering heat. Their initial lead in Texas had been a bust. The only thing they found out was that their son seemed to have a lot of doppelgangers. In all actuality Lily didn't think Luke had ever set foot in the Lone Star state. She was willing to bet that her son was nowhere near where they were looking for him, and she was certain they would find him if Damian would just listen to her for a minute. It was June now, and she had an idea that she wanted to implement.

Obviously trekking across America was not the way to go. It was possible that wherever Luke was he wasn't going to be hiding in plain sight. They needed to lure him, and the best way to do that was to use the power of the airwaves and the internet. If they made a TV appearance then he surely would see how worried they were about him. It was possible after all that Noah was correct. He had been the one who knew Luke best, and Lily was considering getting him involved with this too. She wondered if that would be possible. Anything had to be better than this.

Are you ready Cara?" Damian's voice startled her, and she turned, wondering when he had come out and how she had missed him.

"We need to talk," she said, taking his hand to pull him away from the police station. She waited until they were safely inside their air conditioned car before turning to him with a serious expression on her face. "Okay, Damian, we have done this your way for months now. We're not getting anywhere, and the longer we take to tour the entire country, the long Luke is going to be without supervision. We have to find him and I think I have an idea."

"What is it, Cara?" Damian asked seeming not too amused that Lily was trying to take control. He knew what needed to be done to find their son, and if she just stopped interfering he was certain they would make some headway.

"Don't take that tone of voice with me," Lily said crossly. "We have been in Texas for months now, and I don't think Luke is here. I don't think he has ever been here and it's just a waste of time to keep looking. Luke is not going to just appear out of thin air, Damian. We have to lure him out. I think we need to use some of my connections and make a plea for Luke's safe return. We'll appeal to Luke and he'll come to us. It's the only way, Damian."

"I just don't understand why you want to waste the time when we could be covering more ground," Damian argued."

"You want to find him don't you?" Lily asked crossing her arms as she looked at her ex-husband. "I think we're wasting precious time right now arguing about it. Let's just do it my way for a change. We'll see what happens. And if Luke isn't found then we can continue the search. But the fact is Damian, we've looked, and we have people looking and there has been no luck. Let's try something different. We won't know unless we try right?"

Damian bit back his retort and smiled encouragingly at his ex-wife. It wouldn't hurt to give her plan a try. He had to admit it had merit. If they put out a public plea to Luke he would think that they were willing to listen. And if that worked they would have him right where they wanted. Sure, he would feel a little betrayed but the ends justified the means this time. Luciano needed their help it was as simple as that.

"You're absolutely right, Cara. We should try anything if it will get Luciano back to us. Just tell me what we need to do and we'll put things In motion."

Lily hid a smile and nodded as she worked through her plan in her head. All she needed to do was place a phone call to Kim, and she would have cameras and a crew at her disposal. Of course that would take a few days to get set up, but she was certain that this would work. Luke just needed to know how much they missed him. They only wanted what was best for him after all, and he would be much better off if he just let them help him. She was certain he was scared, and even still she thought about what Noah had said. Could he be right about this? Were they going about things the wrong way?

Damian's hand on her shoulder pulled her out of her thoughts and she realized the car had come to a stop. She nodded in response to Damian's concern and followed him into the hotel. A quick call to Kim told her all she needed to know and she looked at Damian with a satisfied smile on her face as he handed her a glass of wine.

"We'll have everything we need in a few days," she said taking a sip of her drink. "I just hope this works. What if Luke is with someone who isn't treating him right, Damian? He really shouldn't be alone in his condition."

"Don't worry, Cara. Luciano is our son, which means he is strong and can take whatever is thrown at him. We will find him and we will get him the help he needs."

Lily turned her head and rolled her eyes as she sipped on more wine. Her ex-husband was a mass of contradictions, and she was really starting to wonder if he truly had Luke's best interests at heart. She wanted to find her son, and when she did she was going to talk to him. Only Luke could tell her how he was feeling. She just hoped she could find him before it was too late.

The TV spots were set to air at the beginning of July. Lily and Damian made their way north heading back to the Midwest. Lily insisted that they needed to be close to Oakdale, she had a feeling that if Luke would go anywhere he'd come close to home. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that this was where they needed to be.

As she and Damian watched the fireworks she wondered what her son was doing at that moment. Was he looking out at the night sky watching the explosion of colors? Was he thinking about his family, missing them? Missing her? The fourth of July was his favorite holiday, she remembered that and it made her smile. He used to love watching the fireworks, and when he was a toddler he'd sit on her lap and clap his hands whenever the colors burst in the sky. She could remember him calling out the colors and the wonderment in his eyes…she missed her little boy.

Of course, he wasn't a little boy anymore. That was a fact that became apparent with each passing day. She could remember sitting in the hospital watching him fight for his life while they tried to find a kidney for him. She remembered his rebellion caused by her and his father. It made her frown to think that she and Holden had caused him so much grief with their relationship problems.

When Damian moved to comfort her she pulled away and stood moving a few paces away to stare up at the night sky. It was a clear night, perfect for the frequent bursts of color that permeated the sky. There was so much she needed to make up for where Luke was concerned. She realized now that she had done something wrong, though she wasn't quite sure what. Where had she gone wrong? Here she was away from her kids, and her family…and for what?

Sadly Faith and Natalie were used to her taking off on a whim. But her baby, her Ethan, was about to turn two and she wasn't there. There was no excuse for that and she was certain that even Luke would ream her out about it. That thought made her smile. She would take a lashing from Luke over this uncertainty any day. Her sweet outspoken boy, who had such a good head on his shoulders. She was proud of him, and she didn't think she told him that enough. She would, if and when they found him. She just wanted to take him into her arms and never let go.

Of course she knew there was something else she needed to do as well. They had not parted on good terms; he was already gone when she came out of her coma. And when he had returned home in July so much happened…and now here they were a year later and she felt like she didn't understand what was going on with her own kid. She wanted to go back to that day in the hospital, to the day when he had revealed to Noah that he had been sent to Echo Lake.

Lily wanted to cry just thinking of what her son must have endured there. As she hugged herself she looked up at the sky again and hoped that he was somewhere safe. She hoped he would watch the TV spot and she hoped he would listen to her words and see that she only wanted him to be happy. She needed to tell him that she loved him. She wanted to hold him. She just wanted her little boy back, and she didn't care if he liked boys.

She heard Damian call her name, and she wiped at a stray tear before turning to face him a smile on her face. She was ready to get some sleep. The day had been exhausting, and a part of her wanted to reach out to Holden. She missed him too, he had always been her rock, her means of support and she was sorry that she hadn't trusted his instincts. After all he knew Luke better than all of them. He had raised Luke, sometimes on his own when her world was less than perfect. Noah was right; Holden was Luke's only reliable parent and she had misjudged him greatly. She knew now that she should have trusted his judgment and she would tell him that…tomorrow.

Tonight she went to her room, and said a prayer for her son. She hoped that she would be reunited with him soon, so she could make up for the time they had lost. They would never get it back, but he needed to know that she loved him and supported him. More importantly he needed to know she believed in him.

Damian was on a call when the phone rang, distracting Lily from listening. She sighed and picked up the phone, answering it without looking at the display. "Hello?"

"Are you alone?"

"No," she said glancing at her ex-husband before getting up to move outside.

"Don't say my name…I need you to listen to me, but just you, okay?" The voice said even as she leaned against the wall outside her hotel room.

"Yes, I understand. What can I do for you?" Her eyes widened as she listened, and she gripped the phone tightly trying hard to hide her excitement. "Okay…I can do that. Yes I get it. I'll meet you wherever you want me to…don't worry about that, I can deal with him. He won't even know I'm gone. Thank you." She hung up the phone and allowed a smile to cross her features briefly before smoothing her face and heading back inside.