Dinner at Rafael's. He'd never been there before, but Laurie seemed to know it. She was smiling at him over a wine glass, with those dancing, jewel-green eyes. She was in her mid-twenties now but she still looked like that nineteen-year-old who'd saved him in that alley all those years ago.
Dan smiled back at her, wondering what went on behind those eyes. He must have been looking at her for too long because suddenly Laurie dropped her eyes to the table. When she raised them again her expression was different. She was always sort of guarded, but he could never tell if it was just her way or if she was holding something back from him.
"So, are you seeing anyone, Dan?" The question took him by surprise.
"Uh," he mumbled. "No." Which was weird, wasn't it? Dan realized that he hadn't even been out on a date in ... well, he couldn't recall when he'd had a night away from crime fighting before this.
"How do you feel about that?" she asked. She and Rorschach had that in common, that ability to be laser-precise, Dan thought. But Rorschach would never pry into his personal life like that. Would never even consider it. "Do you like being on your own?"
"I'm not solitary by inclination," Dan said. "I just don't meet people ..."
"You really should, Dan. You should get out there and meet someone. You should go on a date. You never know when you're going to be sitting across the table from someone, and look up, and see the person you want to spend your life with." Laurie drew in a sharp breath. "Oh, God knows what you must think of me, Dan, lecturing you on dating and I've been with the same man since I was sixteen. What the hell do I know?"
He had no answer for that. Most of the time he didn't give himself the chance to ask the questions Laurie was asking; when he did wish for a partner in life, he told himself that he was fighting the good fight and it would be unfair to involve someone in his dangerous life. Plus, he had Rorschach to talk to, such as it was, and he had this time with Laurie ...
"Are you at least getting laid?" she asked. Dan's jaw dropped open upon hearing Laurie Juspeczyk pronounce those words. "Oh, Dan, don't be such a - such a Boy Scout about everything," Laurie said, laughing again. "Come on, Dan. Lighten up. Have some more wine."
He did. He took a long sip before asking her a question of his own.
"Is that what you found, Laurie? The person you want to spend your life with?"
She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I suppose I have. Jon and I ... I guess we were meant to be."
Dan gazed down at the olives in the bottom of his glass at the edge of the table. He downed them, too. "What about marriage? You two going to get married ... or something?"
She thought about that one for a minute, then shook her head. "Marriage messes things up too much. Like a dirty bandage on an old cut. You're afraid to pull it off because it will hurt so much, but you don't want to look at it anymore, either. I just need to look at my mom and dad to see how awful it is."
Her eyes were full of pain as she spoke. From what she had told him of Jon, he probably didn't care one way or the other about marriage. Dan wondered if Dr Manhattan was even really capable of a marriage - and what legal standing he would have to enter one, anyway. The Dan shook his head to clear away those thoughts and focus again on Laurie. "My parents were just the opposite," he offered, though he was fairly sure it wouldn't relieve her pain. "If they hadn't died so soon, they'd probably still be just as much in love." He looked at her across the table, tried to gauge her emotion. "I always thought I'd get married someday."
"Oh, Dan," Laurie said, her voice as gentle as music. "That's so sweet."