Truth or Die
Chapter 52A
Sometimes when I am working on a story, there are things I write that are separate, not meant for the actual story but to give me a frame of mind for a particular character. In this case this is what Luke is thinking the day of the shooting and the death of Lucky. As well as Laura and what she really thinks about what has been happening.
My handy little old ladies at the senior center who are acting as reviewers said that I needed to post this.
Same night as Lulu is having her melt down at the Spencer home.
Luke looked in the window, once again on the outside of his own life. His wife and sister were coming towards the door so he ducked into the bushes and watched as they insisted on Lulu coming with them.
Seeing Carly, he scoffed as the blond arrived just a few minutes later. Looking back he could trace the minute things started to fall apart in his family. It was the moment his niece arrived in town. Before that, things could have been salvaged but afterwards, Bobbie had never completed trusted him again.
He watched thinking that taking her out would be doing the whole world a favor, but like most cockroaches, Carly was hard to kill. Stumbling away he went to the docks, smiling as he slipped aboard the old tub, no Zachara was going to keep him away.
Walking through the empty decks he continued to drink from the stores of liqueur on board, never seeing the man standing in the background smiling faintly. Tony just thought keep on drinking Luke. The more you drink the closer you come to going over the edge. There are lots of ways of killing someone, but the best way was letting them do it to themselves with just a little pharmaceutical help.
Soon, the world would be a better place with Luke dead, his son incapacitated and his daughter driven to the brink, the Spencer genes would not propagate at least in this form. Matt could live, after all, he hadn't been raised a Spencer and Luke wouldn't care a wit about his other son. Spencer was part Cassidine so he would be okay. Nik was trying to raise his child without the influence of the Spencer genes or the Cassidine insanity.
The only problem that remained was what to do with Bobbie and her grandchildren. Carly might have been allowed to live, but once he had found out what she had done to Helene and Audrey's granddaughter her life had been given an expiration date.
Jax would raise the two boys and if things worked out well by another who had overcome their own deficiencies. Matt would be a good influence; his arrogance was being shot to hell by the constant reminders that he wasn't the best at everything. Something he would want to help pass on to his blood cousins. So Morgan and Michael were safe from harm unless they chose to follow in the family's less than admirable footsteps.
Looking back at his immediate concern, he quietly left the boat, knowing that Spencer was getting close to his breaking point would allow him to sleep this evening.
Luke thought he heard footsteps, but found nothing other than the guard who was staying on the docks. Going back to his former abode, he slid into bed, hoping to find a way to help his children. They were going to need to use their Spencer smarts if they wanted to get revenge on all that had done harm to them.
When Luke woke up he attributed the spinning in his head to the drinking with a heart problem. Walking off the boat, he saw that Tracy was standing there with Skye. "Well, well, look how the mighty have fallen!" She said as she walked over to the drunk. "What are you doing Luke? You are throwing away your life for nothing."
"It's my life to do with what I want, Spanky-Pants. Why are you here?" He asked.
"To try and get you some help."
"My father doesn't need or want your kind of help." Said Lucky as he joined them. "Since when are the two of you together without blood being drawn?" He asked Skye.
"Lucky we are just worried about Luke."
"Things are just fine, Blaze. Why don't you go home and cuddle up in the warm embrace of your Quartermaine heritage. It's kept Tracy warm all these years, that and of course all the husbands your money can buy."
Tracy just shook her head, saying "When you are thinking clearly, give me a call."
"Don't hold your breath. Blaze, if you ever decide to fall off that wagon, stop in and see me."
"Luke where will I find you?" She asked still worried. "Zachara has people starting to work on this boat. You have no money and no place to stay. Look, here, it's not a lot."
"Spencer's don't need your charity." Snarled Lucky as he pushed his father back onto the boat and grabbing his things took him and a few cases of booze back to Kelly's. Seeing the hot young thing that was now staying across from him, he pushed his father onto his bed and went back down the stairs to find out who she was.
Seeing the woman that Bobbie had called and hired to run the place, he called out "Marianna, who is in room 3?"
"A tenant of your Aunt Bobbie." Luke followed his son back down stairs and said "See you later cowboy." With that he saluted him with a bottle of Kentucky bourbon and left.
Several hours later after getting into an argument with the bartender at the dive bar on Courtland Street, Luke found himself in the company of one of Jason Morgan's men. The man pushed him into a chair across from the man who had stolen his son's dream and made it his own.
Listening to Jason, he just laughed at the obvious ploy to distract him. If this kid of Holly's had been his what made Morgan think he would care. He hadn't wanted to be a father to the ones he has with Laura. While he loved them, he wouldn't have wanted to add to the mess of the overpopulated world.
That was Corinthos' shtick not Luke's. Hearing the dismissal in Morgan's tone of voice, he got up and had the guard take him back to the Haunted Star where his wife was once again waiting.
"Why are you here?" He asked as he leaned against the Bentley.
"We need to talk about out divorce."
"You want a divorce, give me back my five million dollars." He said then got into the driver's side and sat down. "This car as well. I think I would look very nice driving around town in this baby."
Luke started the car and backed out of the lot before pulling onto the main road, Tracy tried to convince him he was in no shape to drive, but it wasn't until they hit a parked car and a telephone pole that he got out.
Tracy was unconscious so Luke helped himself to her purse while easing her over into the driver side just as On star said help was on the way. Passing the bank on the corner, Luke stopped and rested on a bus stop bench, making sure that help did arrive, after all he did still love the wicked witch.
Seeing a bar across the street, he wandered in just in time for the lunch rush. Sitting at the bar, he never looked up at the Special Bulletin coming across the screen, so he missed finding out that his son had just shot his daughter in front of witnesses. Twenty minutes later when his cell phone buzzed he saw that it was Bobbie, then a few minutes later she called again. Finally having enough of her ruining his buzz, he answered then tossed down a hundred and rushed to the hospital.
Seeing Zachara wrapped up in Georgie Jones while his daughter was having surgery pissed him off. She had been used and tossed away by the mobster, just like his whore of a niece had been by Corinthos. At least this one he would be able to make pay and he had the perfect way to start.
Going towards the payphones, he was delayed by Mac Scorpio who informed him that Lucky had been drunk when he shot Lulu. Wincing he just said, "You expect me to believe that, do you?" Then who shot Lucky?"
Harper spoke up and said "A hit man, nicknamed Mr. E. Just how did Lucky piss off a man who was supposedly retired since before Lucky was even of age."
"Do I really have to spoil it all out for you, This has all the markings of a copycat, and both Johnny Zachara and Jason Morgan had it out for my son. Why aren't you arresting one of them?"
"They didn't do this, but I still need to find out what he did to piss this man off?"
"Do your jobs for once and maybe actually arrest the bad guys, we all know that Morgan hates Lucky."
"LUKE!" Shouted Laura as she left their daughters rooms. "Come, I need you."
Luke was furious when he saw that Jeff Webber had performed the surgery on his little girl. After letting him know it, Leslie intervened saying shut up Luke. "Jeff how is she?"
"She is going to be a very sore girl, but she will live. WE had to remove about two inches of the small intestine and her spleen but she will live."
"Are you worried about infection, with her spleen gone?" Asked Bobbie from where she stood watching the medical equipment.
"We are always worried about infection, but she is doing fine for now. Later on we need to sit her down and explain what not having a spleen means to her, but Bobbie you know that patients live long and healthy lives without their spleen."
"Jeff, thank you." Said Bobbie as she pulled Luke over to his daughter and out of the surgeon's way. Returning she asked "Who was the nurse?"
"Elizabeth so you will have a different one assigned to aftercare, more than likely Leyla Mir. She has no connection to any of this mess."
Luke listened as Noah explained what was going on in his son's surgical suite. "So there is a good chance Lucky will be fine." He said.
"Luke, that is not what I said. I said if his body is strong enough, he should pull through, but there was serious damage done to his brain. He could just as easily not."
"Don't say that, please don't say that." Pleaded Laura.
"Laura, I can't lie to you. Lucky and his past addictions did a lot of damage to his liver and heart. After care is going to be quite difficult because they have to be careful with what meds they give him."
Luke stormed out past the annoying doctor, they all thought they were gods gift to the world. When frankly none of them knew what they were talking about. HIS COWBOY was strong; he had no doubt that Lucky would walk out of this hospital.
Entering the police barracks, Luke was glad he had stopped to shower and shave. First stop on reclaiming his family's life was to humiliate those that had done them wrong. Starting with his little girl, Johnny and Georgie would learn what it meant to mess with a Spencer.
After talking to the Captain, he just smiled as they drove to the Port Charles police station; this was going to be fun. Entering he saw Mac tense up at what the trooper told him, then turn to Harper and asked him to have Georgie come to the station.
Mac walked over and said "Luke, I know you are hurting, but this is the wrong way to deal with it. Lulu destroyed that bench; Johnny called me today and told me what happened last night. You are only hurting yourself."
Luke watched as an hour later, Georgie walked in with Harper soon followed by her husband who was shutting his phone and comforting Georgie.
The brunette walked up to him and said that he was going to regret this. He saw the backbone she had kept hidden during the end of her relationship with Dillon, what a shame she was wasting her time. He was going to enjoy watching them squirm, how where they going to get out of this without telling Mac exactly what they were doing down on those docks.
Seeing the Zachara attorney, he was blindsided when she placed a small blue disk in Harper's hand and asked him to play it. Seeing his daughter standing there listening to the same sounds they all were, Luke felt for his daughter. However the look on Mac's face was priceless as everyone in the near vicinity listened to his daughter having sex on a public bench.
Turning he expected to see Georgie crying, but she was just a little red. She looked at him and shook her head like she was disappointed in him. Some part of him deep down regretted hurting Felicia's daughter but she brought it upon her self by flaunting her relationship with the Zachara whelp all over town.
After the disk ended, he found himself ready to talk his way out, when Mac's own incompetence took care of it for him. Walking towards the exit, he answered his phone, to hear Laura crying hysterically.
Luke felt his heart stop as he leaned against the wall, Lucky was dead, it turns out he didn't have the Spencer strength of will after all.
Getting himself together he hurried to the hospital in time to see Lulu waking up to finding out her brother was dead and Laura locking herself in Lucky's room. When two hours had gone by, she unlocked the door.
"Luke, meet me on the roof." Was all she said in an emotionless tone of voice. She then turned to Noah who had been waiting along with Jeff Webber and said "please remember that he is someone's son. What ever else he did, he will always remain my son."
Laura walked into her daughter's room, seeing her asleep with Nik sitting there, she asked her son to join her in the chapel for a few minutes. Once there, instead of praying for Lucky he soon was shocked at her requests. "Mom, when will you be joining us?" He asked.
"As soon as possible but there are things that need to be done here. I have to keep Luke from going after innocent people. I may be the only one who can."
"Mom just let him self-destruct. You need to worry about Lulu, let me go to Morgan or my uncles."
"This is my responsibility. Just take care of your sister. Get her out of town by tomorrow evening."
"What about burying Lucky?"
"We tell everyone it is going to be private, that the service will be in a few days, then you leave with Lulu. Nik, I know you are going to want to tell Emily and Elizabeth, you can't. Our family has done enough harm there. Let them deal with their grief without Luke going off on them. They can have a small memorial service later in they want, but my guess is they chose to remember him the way he was."
"I hate lying to them."
"Just take care of this please. Now I have to meet with Luke."
"Mom, what do you have planned."
"You don't want to know." Was all she said before going out the door and not looking back. If she did she wouldn't be able to do what needed done.
Meeting Luke on the roof, she explained that she wanted a private service for Lucky to keep the press out. That it was only fitting for it to be just family. That it was going to be in two days. "Nik is handling the arrangements for me. Do you have anything you want to say to me?" She asked harshly.
Looking as the man she had loved most of her life stood there a pathetic wreck all she could think of was the damage the two of them had wrought in the lives of their children and even people on the sidelines. Her mother, Stefan, Bobbie, Scott and most especially Elizabeth Webber. Now was the time to end it.
"Lulu is going to the Cassidine Island in Greece to heal, and then I'm taking her to Switzerland to get some help. Our daughter is in danger of turning into Carly and I won't allow that to happen, but before we end things, there is something I want us to do. For old times sake. Luke, I will always love you, even when I am no longer in love with you. Please meet me at the place we first danced. Meet me at the building where the Campus Disco was."
Luke was thrown; Laura was as calm as she could be. Making plans for their daughter, burying their son. She just wanted to close the book on the past and he would do as she requested. Going down to the morgue, he entered and looked through the files until he found the drawer where his son was located.
Opening it up, he just held his son, his cowboy and mourned for what had been years ago. Regretted the recent past and wished for the future that should have been his. He sat there the entire night, when the coroner entered the next morning, he saw the older man sitting with his hand still on the closed cold drawer.
When he realized it was Luke Spencer he asked if the man would like to see his son.
"I already did, while the body is now just a shell, please take care of it. My cowboy has gone to the big range in the sky." With that he went to get a drink. Lulu would be fine; she had Nik, Bobbie and even Carly to take care of her. After meeting Laura tonight he was taking off, it was time.
Going to the Haunted Star he grabbed the briefcase with the remaining funds from his raiding of Helena's account and then went to withdraw funds from Tracy's account. Getting almost fifteen thousand dollars he added it to the fifty thousand he already had.
Breaking to the Corinthos Mansion he found a couple hundred grand. Never seeing the guards watching him and reporting back to Jason, he grabbed a few of the more expensive but handheld items to pawn and left.
Stopping at Kelly's he entered his son's room and took anything he would need. Lucky wouldn't need it anymore. Then stopping at Jake's he had a drink in memory of his son. It was almost time to meet Laura.
Entering the empty building he couldn't figure out why Laura would want them to meet at the place that held their worst memories. Seeing her standing there with tears in her eyes he walked over and said "He will not have died in vain. They will pay for taking our son away from us."
Laura wiped the tears away and said "No, no they won't. Luke, this is payment for us we did this. We caused this. Not Jason Morgan, his only crime was falling in love with a young woman in mourning for our son. Not Elizabeth, she has carried the mantle of fixing the Spencers just because we helped her years ago. No one but Lucky is responsible for what happened in that courtyard. He shot his sister he did that."
"As for who ever shot Lucky, all they did is end his pain."
"No, he wouldn't have stayed that way; he would have crawled out of that dark spot. I always did." He insisted. "He would have too."
Laura gave a sad smile. "Luke, Lucky wasn't you. He was his own person, a person who hurt people deliberately. Our son never came back to us; he died that day in the motorcycle shop. All we can do is save Lulu from following in his footsteps."
"She is truly the best of both of us. Strong willed and smart, she can do anything she wants."
"Actually she is the worst of both of us. Impetus, blinded by her emotions and foolish. Luke, we have turned her into a spoiled brat who thinks people owe her things. The world doesn't work that way. She is going down a very dark path, the best we can do is get out of her way, maybe she will see that she is wrong."
"Wrong about what, Laura, you aren't making sense."
"No, for the first time in a very long time, I'm seeing clearly. When Lulu got sick, to me it was a miracle that she lived. I let her become everything I ever hated in other girls. She is not going to end up that way. I swear."
"Laura, why are we here."
"We are here to put an end to things, things that should have never happened to begin with. We have hurt too many people over the years. So before I leave, let's have a toast, bourbon for you. Champagne for me, unless you want some."
"No, the bourbon is fine." Taking the open bottle he drank some then toasted his unreachable star. Laura was crying and then there were two of them. Shaking his head, he just took another sip, to hear her crying get louder. Then he felt the dizziness.
"Luke, I'm sorry but this has to end. This is the only way I know how."
"Laura, what did you do?"
"The drug I gave to Nik to poison Elizabeth with, remember you had to be very careful with the dose. Well, I was careful. I gave you five times the recommended dose. I will always love you, but that love is toxic to everyone around us. Good bye Luke."
Luke fell to the ground, disturbing the rubbish on the floor. Looking around he knew his time was up. Recalling the good time and bad, his thoughts were of dancing with a beautiful blond with long curly hair. This dream always ended then, before the nightmare it became later with his forcing himself on Laura. His last action on earth was to reach out for the bottle lying on the floor half-empty. His daughter and son would have their revenge, after all. Laura had never thought to ask if Luke had done anything already for revenge. As he dreamed of revenge, in his mind the whole thing blew up, with Morgan and Johnny the first to go.
