Chapter 13
At sea
Luke awoke to find Laura lying in his arms. He bent down to kiss her, she looked up at him and smiled.
"I forgot how wonderful it feels to have you in my arms," said Luke.
"Glad to see that I haven't lost my powers over you," she teased.
They kissed again.
"Are you hungry Luke?"
"I'm always hungry," he said with a smile.
She punched him playfully on the arm.
"I meant for food."
"So did I. I don't know what you were…" Luke teased. "Why Laura, I am surprised at you, thinking something like that."
He couldn't keep a straight face any longer.
"You know me too well darling."
She laughed.
"Can we have something to eat? I am really hungry."
"Ok, five crackers each, but that's it. We have to make our food supplies last."
As they ate, Luke watched the western sky. It was growing darker. There appeared to be a storm brewing. He decided not to say anything to Laura. There was no need to worry her, besides it may not be very bad.
"So what did your Mother say when you told her you were going to Florida to rescue me? Did she try to talk you out of it?"
"She didn't say anything."
"Laura, you did tell her didn't you?'
"No," Laura said.
"So no one knew where you were going?"
"Bobbie knows."
"Well that's something anyway."
"Luke, why are you so concerned about who I talked to before I left Port Charles?"
"Because, Barbara Jean is the only person other than Hutch that knows where to start looking for us. And Hutch thinks we are on our way back to Port Charles. So let's hope Barbara gets worried and reports us missing. If she doesn't, then no one will come looking for us."
A rumble of thunder was heard in the distance. The sky was even blacker now. Luke hoped that Laura hadn't noticed. He decided to try to distract her.
"You know Laura, I couldn't believe it when you climbed out of that air vent. I was so sure that it would be Hutch or Roy coming in to rescue me."
He noticed how quiet she was.
"Angel, is anything wrong?"
"No, I was just thinking," she said
"About what?"
"How fast changes come in our lives. Friday I was waiting at home for you to come to dinner and now just four days later here we are on a life raft, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean."
"I know. It doesn't seem real does it?"
"No, it doesn't. Look at all that happened in between. I found Hutch, we rescued you from Jennifer, we nearly went over a cliff, we have been shot at, and nearly blown up."
"Don't worry Laura. I am sure we will get out of this somehow. Someone will come looking for us soon. Then we will return to Port Charles and our normal lives."
Laura doubled over laughing at this.
"What did I say?" asked Luke.
"Luke, when did we ever have normal lives?" she laughed.
Luke began to laugh too.
"You got me there darling."
Another clap of thunder was heard. It was much louder. Luke knew by the look on Laura's face that she heard it that time. When she looked at him, her eyes told him that she knew the danger of the approaching storm.
"Don't worry baby. Its just a little thunderstorm, it will pass quickly."
"Don't lie to me Luke. I know how bad a storm of any size would be in this little raft."
"I never could hide anything from you. Yes, it is serious."
They glanced to the west and saw jagged lightening in the black sky. The storm was racing towards them, possibly only moments away. Luke hugged her to him. He turned her so she was looking over his shoulder, away from the storm.
"Luke, I'm scared. What are we…"
Laura stopped speaking so quickly that Luke was startled. He pulled back away from her so he could see her face.
"What's wrong?"
She pointed off towards the horizon. Luke looked in the direction which she was pointing. He saw what she was looking at. Far in the distance there was the unmistakable sight of land.
Luke picked up the paddles and started rowing as fast as he could. The storm was gaining on them. Luke knew that the storm would hit before they got to shore, but he didn't want Laura to know that.
The wind started picking up. The waves were tossing the little life raft like it was a toy. They only had a half mile to go when the storm struck.
Luke struggled to keep the raft heading toward the land. The waves wanted to send them every other direction. He didn't seem to be making much headway.
The thunder was deafening. Laura closed her eyes to keep from seeing the jagged lightening. She was afraid that the lightening was going to hit the raft.
They were almost to shore. A large rock appeared in their path. If they hit the rock, their boat would be punctured. Luke stopped rowing. He put the paddle out to push them away from the rock.
The waves were higher now that they were nearer to shore. One large wave washed over the raft. Luke heard a scream and turned around. Laura was gone.