Laurie had felt just a little bit wrong, agreeing to go out with Dan that Thursday, even though he had specified that it was just as friends and that she knew he was a trustworthy guy. It had less to do with Dan and more to do with herself; she had made it no secret to him that she was lonely and that things weren't what they could be with Jon, and she didn't want it to seem like she was throwing herself at the first guy to pay attention to her in a while.

She had hoped that if she asked Jon about going it would help ease her mind on the matter, but when she talked with him about it, he didn't seem to have an opinion one way or the other. There had been a part of her that had hoped he would be jealous about things or even ask her not to go, but if he was, he did not show it.

"Are you sure it's fine for me to go out with Dan tomorrow?" she asked, hoping that the way she phrased it might cause him to think differently. It wasn't the first time she had asked, but his answer hadn't changed so far.

"Of course. I have a lot to get caught up on this week, so it won't affect me if you go out with your friend," was all she got from him. Which was typical, he always needed to get 'caught up' on work, even though he worked so often she had had no idea how he could get behind in the first place. What had she even been thinking, getting involved with him the first place?

It had been a challenge, she supposed, and he had been incredibly good-looking. She still thought he was, but that didn't really do much good when he usually possessed the personality of a brick. But back then, he had just been the handsome guest lecturer, who Laurie had thought would be interesting to hook up with. She hadn't been entirely serious in pursuing him at first, but when she talked to him, she really thought he seemed interested in her.

Maybe he had been, back then. She had always been beautiful- maybe not as much of a knockout as her mother used to be, but she had always been beautiful, and she was young, and she made it no secret that she was available. He had been interested in her back then, and she had run with it, because it had been a challenge and it was something no one else she knew could say they did.

But time had passed, and he had grown more distant from her every day, yet never made a move to leave her. She would think that the relationship had to be close to over, and then he would do something like offer to have her move in with him, and she had no idea where they stood. For all she knew, he could be planning to propose to her while she thought they were at their lowest point.

She didn't know what she would say if he really did, and she didn't know why that scared her as much as it did.

~X~

On Thursday night, she gave Jon one last chance to tell her not to go, and he didn't take it, so she went to the address Dan had given her to meet up with him. When she got out of the cab, he was already standing there, waiting for her. He had seemed like the sort he would be early for these sorts of things, and she suppressed a laugh now that she saw that she had not been wrong.

He waved to her when he saw her approaching, and said, "Hey, glad you could make it!"

She smiled at him and replied, "Well, I couldn't miss an evening out at..." She looked up at the club, taking in the sign that bore its name. "'Shots and Giggles?'" Laurie made a face.

"I think they were trying to be funny," said Dan with a grin.

"Well, they did a pretty shitty job at that," she said. "Let's hope the guy performing is funnier than that."

"Trust me, he is. I didn't usually come out on week nights, but I caught him one Thursday back when that he was still amateur night, and I've been coming back every week I could manage since." Dan seemed enthusiastic as he held open the door for her. "Eventually, he was the only one they had perform, and I started talking to him after he was done. We're sort of friends, I think."

"Well, let's get in there, then," she replied, entering the building with Dan following behind her. She surveyed the room, catching sight of someone that nearly made her stop in her tracks. He was an older man, probably in his late forties, and he looked incredibly familiar.

But there was just no way it was him, that coincidence would be too much. She had to be mistaken- after all, she had only seen one photo of him and he had been so much younger then. It was possible that this man was what he would look like aged, but there was just no way she had run into that man, of all people. There was just no way in hell it was him.

But then Dan was waving at him and saying, "Laurie, that's him over there. Let's go say hi before it's time for him to start." He called over to the man, "Hey, Eddie!" and she knew that name from the story she had been told, and she knew a younger version of that face from the old picture, and she knew that Dan's friend and the her mother's old 'friend' were one and the same.

"Laurie, this is Eddie Blake, the guy I was telling you about," said Dan, so cheerfully clueless. "Eddie, this is my friend, Laurie Juspeczyk."

Eddie looked surprised, and she was sure that he recognized the last name. It wasn't a common one, after all, and after what he had done, she would have been surprised if he had been able to forget her mother.

"Oh, my mom's friends told me all about him," she said rudely, and his expression was suddenly unreadable. "I'd hoped the name was an unfortunate coincidence and that Dan had better taste in friends, but I guess not." Dan made an uncomfortable noise, but Eddie just stared at her for a moment, unresponsive.

"What?" he asked, then suddenly, infuriatingly, smiled. "Ya don't mean to tell me you're Sally's little girl, do ya?"

Anger bubbled up in Laurie and she had to resist the urge to punch this man, to knock that goddamned smile off his face. "Is that really all you have to say for yourself, after what you did to her?" she screamed, clenching her fists as she fought to hold herself back.

Dan gave an awkward laugh, looking pained. "Well, I think we should get to our table now. See you after the show, Eddie, good luck."

Fuming, Laurie followed Dan to the table he had picked out. She couldn't understand how he could have come to be friends with a guy like that, or how she had happened to run into him of all people. Really, she just wondered how she had managed to keep from clocking him, or at least from letting him have it worse than she had. And when she thought of how casual he had been about it, she almost turned around and charged after him. The only thing that kept her from doing that was knowing that Dan wanted to keep the peace, and she didn't want to damage her friendship with him just yet.

"Why are you friends with him?" she asked, when they were finally at the table.

"I don't...I didn't..." He looked very confused. "I don't know what's going on with the two of you, I didn't even know you two knew each other. What...exactly did he do? I mean, that's got you so mad at him?"

"He didn't do anything to me, but he did plenty to my mother," she replied. "They knew each other in college, they hung out with the same people. One day, some of her old friends were over, and I overheard them talking while they were looking at pictures. One of them got uncomfortable about a picture, and my mom told them not to worry about it, that it didn't bother her anymore. I kept listening and it became pretty obvious what had happened between my mom and one of the men in the pictures.

"When I was a little older, and they were visiting again, I finally asked about it. Eddie Blake tried to rape my mother one night, and he would have been able to if someone at the bar hadn't caught him in the act. She says it doesn't bother her anymore, but still...I just can't believe someone would do something like that to her." She shook her head, sighing. "Sorry, I didn't mean to dump all of that on you."

"No, uh...no, I understand why you did," said Dan. "And what happened to her, that's horrible. He never really seemed like that type to me, I mean, I've known him for a while and he seemed pretty harmless. I guess, since it was so long ago...I don't know, I don't really know what to say here. If you want to leave, we can, and if you don't want me to talk to him anymore..."

She was very tempted to say yes. It would be a very small punishment for what he had done, nearly harmless. But she was barely friends with Dan and he was her first friend in a long while. She didn't want to tell him what to do when she was so new to his life, and she didn't want to do something that would make him resent her. He was right that it had been a long time ago, and she owed it to Dan to at least try to put up with this, even if she didn't like it.

"No, it's fine," she said at last. "I want to stay. After all, you like him cos you think he's funny, right? That's...that's got nothing to do with it, I guess. And these were your plans, so I don't mind sticking around."

"If you're sure," he said, an appreciative smile on his face.

~X~

The worst part was, Eddie really was fairly funny, but she refused to laugh at any of his jokes. Just because she was there didn't mean she had to like it, and just because she was tolerating him for Dan's sake didn't mean she had to like him. But she had so much fun with Dan, and it was so nice to get out, that when she was asked if she'd like to come with him and Walter the next week, she said yes, and from that point on, she was a regular.