Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I'm only borrowing. Without intent to return.

Chapter 11 "A Four-Corner Square- pt. 2"

When Laura knocked on Lucky and Elizabeth's door the next morning, she received no answer. She knocked again and when still she had no reply, she slowly opened the door, willing the hinges not to squeak. She expected to find that her son had already risen and was out, possibly hunting down some breakfast. But when the door opened (soundlessly, thank luck), she found that her son was still asleep, with Elizabeth curled into his arms, her head resting on his chest.

Laura felt a pang in her chest and she looked away quickly. She knew he had done a fair amount of growing up in the year before his disappearance but it was all too clear now that her son was now a man. She couldn't even imagine what he had endured while Helena's captive, and she knew that she would never ask him. It would simply be too much for her to take. The human heart is only so flexible. Laura backed away, shutting the door behind her. She walked back to her own room and when Luke raised his eyes in question to her she replied with one of her own. "When did our son grow up?"

"When we forced him to," was Luke's response. "And even then he turned out better than the source material."

Laura nodded in agreement. She ambled aimlessly across the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Wally had given them a room with two beds, but in her distracted state she had planted herself on Luke's bed. She and Luke had spent almost the entire night in silence. She knew that he was almost afraid to talk to her, afraid that he wouldn't be able to control his temper.

"How did he turn out so well?" she asked. "After all we put him through, after all Helena must have put him through...how has he not turned cold? Hard?"

"I don't know," Luke admitted. "But it's not as if we didn't do at least some right by him. We taught him to think for himself. Maybe that's why he turned out better than us." He looked at the closed door and imagined for a second the scene that might have played itself out in his son's room after they'd left the night before. "I think Elizabeth has a lot to do with it, too," he said. "The love of a good girl can do wonders for any man."

"I know," Laura said, shooting him a significant look. "I have some experience in that department."

"Yes, I suppose you do."

They locked eyes and for the time, their current situation was obliterated. All they could see was nearly twenty years of marriage, love and devotion. The remembrance faded almost as soon as it had appeared, and they were left in the present, in a dingy old motel room on opposite sides of the room.