Alright here is the second part of my favorite Chapter... I'm a little disappointed but I still hope you'll like it.

I do not own Professor Layton!

Chapter 13

Hurt-Confrontation-Comfort - Part 2

The atmosphere in the room was completely tensed. Neither the Professor nor Luke spoke a word for a long time.

But when Luke felt the tension between him and his father growing stronger, he decided to speak up.

"W-w-well, you see..."he paused again,"I just ...It's been a while since then, a-and I-I never really... I-I ..."Luke's voice disappeared again. He knew what to say, but it was just too hard to do so.

"My boy, I understand this is not easy for you but if you stay in silence you'll only get sick, very sick." The Professor spoke up again, his stare never leaving Luke's eyes.

"W-why do you even want me to tell you about ...i-it ...I mean you already read it, didn't you.?" Luke asked confused but also a bit angry. He was trying to change the subject. And 'Invasion of Privacy' seemed to be a good idea.

"I know what you're doing there... I know where you're going with this. But since those 'letter' were laying on the ground in public, you can hardly call my actions and invasion of privacy.", the Professor concluded

Luke was less shocked than he had expected...It was too obvious that his father would immediately know what he was trying to do, he could read in Luke's eyes like in an open book. In this case the eyes really were the windows to the soul.

Luke sighed defeated and a little relieved that the person he was about to tell his biggest secret in life, understood him like nobody else.

"Well, would you like to go on or should we bring up this talk another time soon?", the Professor asked.

That sure was some kind of offer, but was is really a good idea. Luke knew that if he did not go threw this now then this depressing tension in the apartment would stay and that was something Luke couldn't live with not even for a little while.

"No..no ...i-it's alright, I g-guess.", Luke said shivering.

Layton completely understood why Luke wanted to go through this as soon as possible so that everything could finally go back to normal...But one thing was for sure...nothing would ever be the same as before. Wounds might heal but scars do not.

"As you wish my boy. So firstly would you be so kind and tell me who 'Mark' is and how you met him?", the Professor chose his words carefully, since he noticed Luke flinching after hearing the name 'Mark'.

"That's actually a quite .. i-interesting story,"Luke began,"You see. When I first joined the 'Family' Mark was or better said he still is one of the head leaders. We used to go together on the 'drug-sell-trips',"Luke avoided any eye contact with his father, but somehow he still managed to notice a change of emotions in the Professor's eyes from sympathy to anger and disappointment to pity,"U-until one day.. he he. Well,"Luke suddenly felt a loss of words. This was too cruel. He started building up an invisible wall around, so that no one not even the Professor could regain and mistreat his trust,"He just did it!", Luke's eyes were blank, without any emotion he looked up, but he did not look in his father's eyes he actually looked nowhere.

Layton was stunned and shocked, by that sudden statement he thought it would take Luke longer to speak up. He though that it would finally be easier for his son to talk about the subject but then he could see Luke's gaze...It was empty and felt wrong, just wrong.

"Luke?...Luke my boy? Are you alright?", he asked concerned

"Completely fine. Anything else you wanna know?", the boy answered emotionless.

Luke continues staring into nowhere he didn't even notice the Professor's movements towards his chair, while he was walking around the table.

Suddenly Luke's chair was being pulled away from the table and his father knelt down in front of him, trying to finally meet Luke's gaze.

"My boy, you have to talk about this." The Professor said calmly but still making it sound like an order

"I just did.", Luke said, staying in his invisible cage

"No Luke. You did not. You were about to but now you are not even looking at me."

"Of course I am. Where else would I look. You're right in front of me!" Luke answered a little rough.

"Luke stop this nonsense immediately! You know exactly that it won't go away if you just pretend to handle it if you truly don't." The Professor continued while putting his strong hands on the top of Luke's shoulders, making Luke flinch again what underlined Layton's thesis that Luke still was not able to deal with this experience.

"What?... What should go away... I don't even know what you're talking about." Luke said still in his invisible cage.

Thy Professor sighed and waited a few seconds before he continued:

"The pain, my boy. The Pain won't just go away if you go on ignoring what happened."

Luke sat still and hold his breath. What should he do now. Ignoring emotions was the best way of dealing them. Hiding all the terribly memories inside, not letting anyone know about them. When he finally took another breath his head hang down. Luke was now regaining real consciousness...

'Why!? Why!? ... Why is this happening?.. Why couldn't it just disappear? Please make it stop! PLEASE... Oh god... I can't handle this anymore. It's been so long since I wrote it down and even longer since I last talked about it. I can't just tell him... This is too ...embarrassing, N-no that's not it. I feel... I'm feeling guilty.. Why am I still feeling like it's all my fault?... WHY!?. It was him, who did it. Not me!... But why didn't I scream? Why didn't I say 'NO'.. It probably would have been enough.. Why?..Why?..Why am I so weak? Why?... I need help... Please help me... HELP!

"Help...", Luke suddenly said out of nowhere, he probably didn't even notice himself that he had said it out loud but what he felt were big wet tears running down his cheeks and when he looked up again he actually did look into his father's eyes, who looked relieved.

"Oh Luke", the Professor said, when he pushed Luke a little forward and hold him tightly against his chest. One hand on Luke's back, forming soothing circles and the other one on his head, slowly curling through his thick hair.

Layton let his son sob against him, letting all the pain and the burden of silence out.

"shhh.. It's alright my boy. Everything's going to be okay. Shhh." The professor's kind voice hushed the grown up boy.

"Why?..Why?!...Why!"m Luke's voice came louder and louder with every word, sounding almost uncontrollable

"I do not know my boy... I don't know why persons do such things but-" Layton was interrupted

"NO!... Why didn't I do anything about it!?..Why did I just let him do it!? Why does it has to be my entire fault!?", Luke screamed, still being pulled in his father's loving hug.

The Professor couldn't believe his ears. Did the poor boy really though that it was his mistake.. That he was the one to be blamed. The Professor's grip tightened around his son when he spoke up again.

"Luke please stop this. You do not have to blame yourself for what happened. You did nothing wrong. You are the victim Luke and Mark hurt you. There is no need for you to feel guilty. You were a child Luke, a child who had just lost almost everything and he used that fact to break you even more. He is the monster..not you! Understand?!"

"Y-you really think so?", Luke's calming voice asked, even though he was still fighting with his sobs.

"I know so, my boy. Trust me.", he answered,"So would you tell me about it?"

Luke's small figure stiffened again but it was about time so he carefully nodded

"W-well ... it all started when I first had problem with my nightmares. M-m-mark always used to be the first one why came into my room, trying to calm me down, so that after a while he was the o-only one who came, because the others thought, one persons would be enough, unfortunately what they didn't know was that Mark suddenly started ... t- ... well he started." Luke's voice broke again but the Professor's soft grip and words encouraged him to continue.

"It's okay my boy. nothing's going to happen. He can't hurt you anymore. Just try to go on." Layton said still with the whimpering teenager in his arms.

".He s-started t-touching me... in places, which ...I-I didn't like a-and .. somehow when he continued I ended up being tied onto my own bed, and him bending over me... and .. and a- ..." Luke couldn't go any further. It felt almost impossible to go more into detail so he prayed that the Professor would understand and stop encouraging him to continue.

"Alright.. alright. hush my boy. It's okay. You can tell me the rest later." Layton almost whispered into Luke's ear. They both stayed in that embrace for a very long time, Luke need that contact. He needed the feeling of being loved and the Professor needed Luke. So when he felt Luke's sobbed becoming quieter he push Luke's body a little back so that e could look him in the eyes:

"Luke that was very brave of you. There are thousands of persons out there who never showed the courage to talk about something like that. I'm very proud of you son,"with those words Luke was again being hold against his father's chest, feeling safe and cares for", Even though you felt so miserable and alone in the past year that you considered taking your life. The important thing is that you did not.", he continued

"But Céline did." Luke's small voice came up again.

"Y-yes she did. But she made the wrong decision to jump and-" Layton immediately stopped talking after he noticed that Luke's was having trouble with breathing normally so he though it was time to call it an end for today and move on.

"You know what my boy. I'll go make us some tea.", the Professor was a little stunned after he tried to get up but was still held by his son's tight grip and even more after Luke's following words.

"No . Please don't leave. Don't leave my alone again. please", he practically sobbed again.

That brought the Professor back.

"Of course I won't leave you Luke. I'll stay here with you as long as you want me to. I promise." He said while taking Luke's form back into his hands.

Father and son sat there in silence for the rest of the day and also the night unable to move and unable to talk. It just felt right to be there together. Luke felt home and Layton felt love. Nothing in this world could probably have ruined this moment not even god himself.

Author's note:

Next chapter's title : "Back to Life" ... (also it'll be the next to last chapter)