Rehab Center October 28, 2018
Luke jumped down from bed the next morning, "Jesus." He groaned rubbing the back of his neck.
"Seven a.m. Breakfast in ten minutes." A woman over the PA announced.
Luke began making his bed, but when he lifted his pillow there was a note under it from Joey.
'Don't follow me,' that was all it said.
"As you've all heard by now Joey chose to leave treatment in the middle of the night." Paige announced later that day in therapy, "This is what happens when we forget why we're here. I know we're all going to have a lot of feelings about that."
"Some more than others." The guy sitting next to Luke commented snidely and Luke shot him a glare.
"This is a moment we should all pay attention to, especially you newbies here." Paige added looking around the room, "There's a reason why the program encourages us to stay out of personal relationships the first year."
"We're not in a relationship." Luke ground out, "I have a girlfriend."
"Any kind of relationship." The woman replied calmly, "We can get real close to people in recovery."
"We're friends." He shot out, "How the fuck do you expect people to get through this without friends?"
"We don't." She corrected, "One of the biggest issues that can sometimes happen and just sometimes and I'm not saying this about you, Luke, is we can start to hang our recovery on someone else instead of on ourselves." Paige continued, trying to keep Luke calm, "And you lean too hard on another addict? Shit." She scoffed, "We didn't all end up in here 'cause we're so reliable."
He glared at Paige for a moment before shooting out of his seat, "Luke." She called, "Luke."
"I'm fine." He said and headed out of the room.
"Luke."
"I'm just getting some air." He called back before disappearing out the door.
Luke had walked to a payphone further down the street and used it to try and call his sister.
"Hi, this is Nell. Please leave a message after the beep." But all he got was her answering machine.
"Hey, hey, it's, uh, it's me." Luke began leaving his voicemail, "Uh I, I had a moment. Um, Last night, one of those." He let out a breath of air, "You know what I'm talking about. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. I, uh, I don't have a phone and you won't reach me at the center. But, you can call there and leave me a message there. I should be back by tonight. I just have to find a friend." Luke paused as he looked around, "And don't, don't worry. I'm fine. I just I just wanted to be sure you're okay. You know. Yeah, okay."
After getting off the phone, Luke walked over to a bench nearby and sat down. His eye began to wander around him and he began to get lost in his thoughts until a barking dog jolted him back to reality.
Hill House Summer 1992
Luke woke up and looked around his bedroom, trying to figure out what had woken him up. He decided to lie back down and try to fall asleep, but then he began to hear a tapping sound and creaking down the hall.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed Tara sit up in her bed as well. She looked over at Luke, "What is that?"
"I don't know." He whispered back as he slipped out of bed, "Come on let's go find out."
"Luke," Tara responded fearfully as she too, got out of bed, "I don't think that's a good idea."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." He said reaching for her hand as he eased their bedroom door open.
The two children stuck their heads out and looked one way, and seeing nothing they then turned their heads the other way; only to come across a floating man with a cane, and walking alongside him was a beautiful red-haired woman. They were headed right in the children's direction, but first, they stopped and opened the door across from them.
Luke pulled Tara back into the room and quietly shut the door before pulling Tara under his bed with him.
"What was that?" She whispered to her best friend.
"He shook his head, "I don't know."
"I'm scared, Luke." The little girl whimpered.
Luke reached down and held her hand tightly, "Just close your eyes and I'll tell you when it's all over."
Before she could speak again the tapping noise arrived right outside their door before it was swung open and the floating man entered with the red-haired woman following behind them. Tara quickly closed her eyes before she saw anything.
Luke watched the two head across the room and over to the children's bedside tables. The stopped moving for a second before turning around and heading back out the door.
The woman left first with the floating man trailing behind her, but Luke couldn't hold his breath any longer and let out a gasp for air, stopping the floating man from leaving.
He turned back around and headed towards the bed, stopping right in front of where Luke was hiding with Tara. The little boy squeezed her hand in fright.
Suddenly the floating man is staring right at him under the bed, wearing Luke's bowler hat. Luke screamed in terror, causing Tara, whose eyes were still tightly shut, to scream as well."
Streets October 28, 2018
"Fuck you." Someone yelled startling Luke, "Learn how to drive."
He looked over into a neighboring lot and saw a young woman walk over to a man, he handed her something and she turned and began walking away. That was when Luke saw her face a realized the woman was Joey.
He stood up and began walking over to her. Luke was a few feet away when she finally noticed him and the two stared at each other for a minute before he finally spoke up, "Hey."
"Hey." She answered back hesitantly, "How'd you know where to find me?"
He shrugged, "I know your spots." Joey nodded along as she began to cry, "Hey, hey, it's okay." Luke assured her as he pulled her into a hug, "Come on, it's okay."
Luke and Joey walked back over to the same payphone he had used earlier that day to call Nell, and called the rehab center, "I found her. We're coming back." Luke spoke into the phone as Joey sat on the bench nearby, "We can be there in 20 minutes."
"This isn't a hotel, Luke." Paige responded, "You know that we're full up and we need these beds for people who actually want to get well. You run, you give up your spot. That's the way it is."
"Please, Paige. Please." He begged, trying to keep his voice down.
"Your best bet is gonna be a shelter, or take her to your girlfriend's for the night if you really need a place." Paige offered him
Luke gave an exasperated chuckle, "A shelter is the last place she should be. She'll cop, she's already... Look, I need a place where she can come down safe, and I can't take her to Tara's high. The baby's there and Tara would kill me."
"Ah, fuck, Luke." Paige sighed, "I'm sorry. I can't. But you did it to yourselves."
"Fuck." He murmured hanging up the phone.
"She's right." Joey spoke up, "I knew the rules when I left." Luke moved over and sat beside her on the bench, rubbing his neck in pain.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." He nodded, "I just... I slept on it funny last night."
"I told you not to follow me." She reprimanded, "Why did you?"
Luke just stared at her until she began crying again, "I'm sorry." She sniffled, "It's just...you gotta go back. Just 'cause I messed up, doesn't mean you have to."
"I got an idea." He interrupted her, "If I can get you a motel, then..."
"Do you have money?" She cut him off.
"No."
"Can you get money?" She questioned again, "What about your sisters or your brother? What about your baby mama?"
He frowned at the nickname she had given Tara, "No."
"Do you think you can call them?" she asked shakily.
"I'll get some." He assured her, "Okay? And I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna get us a place to stay tonight. Tomorrow, too. And I'm gonna get you clean again." Luke gave her a small smile, "And I'm gonna be right here, right there with you. All the way, just like you were for me, okay? And we're gonna find a new place. I promise."
She nodded in understanding and smiled back at him.
"You got anything left?" he questioned her after a minute.
"Yeah." She nodded and pulled out some money, handing it to Luke.
"That should get us most of the way." He took it from her and placed it in his pocket. When he looked back up, however, Luke saw the bowler hat man standing across the street from them.
"Come on." He urged her as the stood up and walked down the street to hail a cab.
The two slid out of the cab and Luke shut the door.
"You got some balls, man." Joey informed him as they began making their way down the sidewalk, "How long do you wait this morning, before hopping the wall?"
Luke shrugged in response, "Oh, not long."
"I still can't believe you came after me." She blushed, stuffing her hands inside her jacket.
"Well, my sister kind of told me to."
Joey gave him a look of confusion, "Hmm?"
"No, not really." He chuckled uncomfortably, "She... We're kind of in each other's heads. It's been like that since we were kids. It's a twin thing." He breathed out shakily, "You know, once I... Once I broke my foot and Nell called me a few minutes later, and she was just she was just watching TV and her ankle just went nuts." He chuckled slightly at the memory, "It hurt like hell."
Joey laughed in response to his story.
"She had no idea why." He continued, "She iced it for an hour."
'Bullshit." She called him out.
Luke shook his head and smiled slightly, "No, it's a true story." He shivered slightly, "Fuck."
"You okay?" Joey asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm I don't know, I'm cold." Luke responded, pulling his jacket closer around him before stopping and turning to face Joey, "Listen, when we get there, just hang back. I don't want her to see your eyes. She'll know, okay?"
She nodded and brushed her hair back nervously, "Yeah."
He sighed as he began heading towards the house, "She always fucking knows." Luke mumbled under his breath as he made it to the front door and paused to take a deep breath before ringing the doorbell.
A minute later the door was answered by Leigh, Steve's wife.
"Luke." She greeted with a confused look on her face.
"Hey, Leigh" He smiled and pulled her in for a hug, "How are you doing?"
They released each other, "This is a... surprise." She chuckled, "Uh, what are you...How are you?" she finally settles on asking.
"I'm good. Ah, I'm really, really good." He grinned proudly, "Ninety days good, in fact."
"That's really great." Leigh congratulates him, "I can tell; you look different. How are Tara and the baby?"
"Thank you." Luke nodded, "Uh, they're doing great, you know. Lucy's growing like a weed, but anyway, I'm doing so good that I got a day pass. Is Steve here?"
Leigh frowned, "No, he isn't."
"Is he...Well, is he coming back soon?" He questioned urgently, "I just kinda need to talk to him about something."
"He didn't tell you." She stated, looking down in aggravation.
"Tell me what?"
"No, Steve is not coming back soon." Leigh said frankly, "Maybe ever. He doesn't live here anymore."
"Wait, what?" Luke asked, laughing in confusion.
"We separated a month ago."
"Why? Why?" he asked curiously.
"I would really rather not get into that." She replied stiffly.
Luke nodded in understanding, "Okay." He looked behind him at where Joey stood and Leigh followed his gaze, seeing the girl as well, "Listen, I'm... I'm clean." He smiled, "Ninety days like I said."
"And I said that's great." She replied in monotone.
He nodded quietly for a moment before confessing, "Leigh, I need to borrow some money."
"Jesus, Luke." Leigh sighed in exasperation, shaking her head.
"No, it's not like that. I just..."
"We have been through this over and over." She stated in aggravation.
"It's for a hotel." He informed her, "Or if you could just let us stay here..."
"You know you can't do that." She denied him, "You know that."
"Okay." He sighed, turning to look back at Joey once more, "Okay, can you... Can you just give me Steve's address then, please?"
"I think he's out of town." She replied and he grunted in frustration, "I mean, even if he wasn't... I am proud of you, I am, but you have to talk to Steven."
She didn't seem to notice that Luke had stopped paying attention to her, "You know what he's going to say. I really can't deal with this right now, things are bad enough. You should just go home to Tara and Lucy."