Chapter 19
Laura silently cursed her fair skin as she felt herself flush with embarrassment, but she met her unwelcome guest's eyes with a steady gaze. Luke's friend, Mr.Stuart, accompanied by her mother, walked down the pathway, a quizzical expression on his face. It was so like her mom, she thought distractedly, to take the extra time necessary to make a guest welcome.
"It sounds like you have some questions," Stu prompted. His gentle blue eyes met hers.
She took the bull by the horns and plunged into her concerns. "I didn't want to spoil this holiday for anyone in my family, or for you, but I'm concerned about your intentions, sir."
"Laura!" Lesley moved toward her daughter impetuously, but was restrained by a sudden motion from the man at her side.
"Let her explain herself," he said quietly.
"I'm very sorry about the death of your wife, but I assure you that no one in my family was responsible." Laura spoke firmly. "Luke delights in finding potential wrongdoing on my husband's part. If he's egged you on in any way, and I'm sure he has...." She paused and glanced at Luke's still face. "Are you trying to hurt us, because of Luke's accusations or," she went on more hesitantly, "Are you allied with Helena Cassadine?"
Stu crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "I'm well aware that my wife died of natural causes, regardless of Luke's opinions. I told him that his suspicions on that score were groundless."
He glanced at Lesley before continuing. "To answer your second question, I met Mrs. Cassadine only once, at Luke's bar. That was the weekend I met Luke and Lulu as well. Meeting them was pure chance."
Lesley's dark, haunted eyes were fixed on her daughter's face. "How on earth could you accuse him of being tied to Helena?" she asked, in a high-pitched, unusually sharp tone.
Laura reacted as if she'd been struck. "Because she told me to stay away from him, that he didn't need anything from me. She's involved with him somehow.
"Luke was there." She pivoted and looked a plea, but he remained motionless on the bench, eyes fixed on the horizon. He might have been stone himself. She turned back toward her mother.
"That's why I was so provoked with him for bringing Mr. Stuart here. Mom, we have so much to lose. We can't risk it all. Not again."
The two women's eyes locked.
If fear had a smell, Stu thought. A texture. A color.... A cold flame sprang to life within him.
Lesley held out her arms and drew her daughter into them. "Oh, sweetheart, she's so wrong. He does need something from you. And so do I." She tenderly pushed a flying strand of blonde hair into place.
Luke leaned forward, and watched the scene unfold. The autumn sun's weakened rays struck the top of the older man's head and glinted in his light hair. Light reflected and seemed to glow from Laura's pale hair and skin, which contrasted oddly with her mother's darker skin and eyes. Lesley's fading locks were burnished to an almost copper hue by the sunlight which crowned her daughter's fair head in glory. In a moment of deja vu, Luke realized again that he would go to his grave grateful that Lady Luck had once brought Laura into his arms. Even after the bitter ending of their marriage, it still pleased him merely to look at her: her hair, her skin, her expressive eyes.
Her eyes. He looked from her to Stu, and muttered an expletive under his breath.
"I need for you to listen," Lesley's eyes brimmed. "And try to understand. This man is your father, Gordon Stuart Grey. He didn't die. I lied to you."
Luke's audible intake of air distracted Laura. She looked at his face in polite puzzlement.
"I was so afraid that I would lose you. You remember how crazy I made you? Sort of overdoing the mom business? I was so scared of losing you... Gordon's wife had been my patient too. There was that to consider..."
Laura stared at Lesley. This is what it must be like to be deaf, she thought. Adrift in sound without meaning. Struggling to catch and understand the occasional familiar sound pattern rushing past like a bit of debris caught in a fierce tide. Struggling to comprehend it before the whole wave washed over your head, crashed and died on the shore. And always another wave following. Over and over. No rest. She struggled to focus on her mother's anguished face and moving lips, trying to hold onto some small meaning in the confusion. Her mother was upset about something, but what? The roaring of the breakers grew unbearable. It overwhelmed her. She put her hands up to her ears.
"Lesley, stop!" Luke sprang from the bench with his arms extended, but he was too late. Laura fell hard, striking her head on the stone urn near the bench.
"Baby," Lesley stooped next to Laura. "Can you hear me?"
Luke and Stu joined her. Laura's eyes were closed. A crimson spray sparkled on her hair, and the paving stones beneath her head were darkly wet.
"I'm going to turn her over, Les, so you can get a better look," Luke reached for Laura, but the frantic mother shoved his hands away.
"Better to call an air ambulance from the hospital. It's not safe to move her without a back board. We don't know if she's injured her back or neck. Her airway is not obstructed. She's breathing okay. That's something."
Luke nodded grimly, pulled a cell phone from his pocket, and dialed the emergency number Lesley recited while she took her daughter's pulse.
"We need help from the house," Lesley said. "She needs to be covered. We don't want her to go into shock."
Stu, on the ground by Lesley, shrugged out of his jacket, and covered her gently. He touched his daughter's bright hair tentatively. "It wasn't supposed to be like this, Laura," he whispered. Then he stood up jerkily and ran toward the house to find Stefan.
Lesley sat on the cold ground watching her unconscious daughter, and listening while Luke talked on the phone. With a sudden jerk, Laura's body moved beneath her mother's hands.
"No, God, no! Laura!" Lesley eyes widened as Laura's body jerked over onto its back. Her eyes opened, then rolled back in her head, while her whole body thrashed about like an antic marionette. She produced a sustained gurgling noise, and her feet drummed the ground.
"They're coming. What's wrong?" Luke sank to the ground, his dilated eyes fixed on Laura. Someone at the dispatcher's office called his name desperately, but he didn't hear.
"She's having a seizure. Lesley wedged something between Laura's teeth. "Tell them to hurry."
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Stefan paced back and forth across the waiting room. Lesley, Amy, and Nikolas sat morosely in chairs. Too tense to talk or read, each of them was lost in his or her own thoughts.
Stefan pulled out his cell phone, called Wyndemere, and asked for Alexis.
"How is Sergei?" he asked.
"He's doing fine," she answered. "Mrs. Landsbury and I fed him dinner, and we've been playing. Mrs. Landsbury suggested that I give him a bottle before bedtime to help him nod off."
"Yes, thank you." Stefan stopped, then cleared his throat. "His mother usually nurses him before bedtime, but he will take a bottle."
"The nursing I can't manage just yet, but the rocking and the bottle I can. How's Laura?"
"They won't let me see her. Dr. Jones says that she is stable, not showing signs of any further seizure activity, but she remains unconscious. He does not seem to know why yet."
Alexis responded to the unspoken panic in her brother's voice. "She's in good hands. I'm sure that they're doing everything possible. Is Luke there? she added.
"No, no. He left to get Lesley Lu, and to tell Lucky and Liz."
"When you see him," Alexis asked, "remind him that I'm at Wyndemere for the night. I gave Wenders and Mrs. Landsbury the key to the penthouse, and they're picking up some things for me."
"Thank you, Alexis. This means a great deal to me."
"I won't leave him alone for a moment. I'll sleep in his room. I promise you that your son will be fine."
Stefan sighed. "Thank you again. I cannot imagine how I can repay you."
"I'm your sister. Repayment isn't required. Call as soon as you know something, okay?"
"Very well. I will. Goodbye."
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Gordon Stuart Grey walked outside the hospital to use his cell phone. It was imperative that he speak to his brother. He wanted Laura to have only the best doctors. Once he reached him, David himself seemed unimpressed with the little information which Stu possessed.
David's response had been typically blunt. "Oh, please. Her mother's a physician herself. She's had seizures twice before? From emotional strain? This hospital sounds like it's full of absolute quacks. People faint. People get mad and scream, or become silent and withdrawn, but have a full-blown seizure from emotional strain? Unlikely. Something else is wrong."
"The shock of finding out, David..."
"Nonsense. It's not your fault. Hang on, old fellow. I'll be there as soon as I can."
Gordon drew a handkerchief from the inner pocket of his coat and wiped his face. The he reentered the hospital, stepped onto the elevator, and absentmindedly pushed a button to close its door. He leaned against the wall, so preoccupied that he was only half-aware that someone had joined him. As the elevator jolted to life, he inhaled a subtle, yet heady perfume and heard a voice from the other side of the elevator.
"I believe that we were never properly introduced. I am, as you might remember, Helena Cassadine. We were unfortunately interrupted the night we met just as you started to tell me your name."
Gordon leaned against the elevator wall casually and smiled into her chilly blue eyes.
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The policy on visitation at General Hospital was quite clear. Children under the age of fourteen were unwelcome in the Emergency Room and in the Intensive Care Waiting Rooms. Knowing this Stefan had suggested that Luke send Lucky and Liz to the hospital, but keep Lesley Lu with him.
Luke had broken the news about Laura as gently as he knew how to Lucky, Liz and Lulu. It was Liz who had suggested that Luke take Lulu on to the town square to see the great Christmas tree lit for the first time that year, instead of simply waiting by the phone for news. Armed with Luke's cell phone number, Lucky and Liz had raced off for the hospital, promising to call as soon as there was any word.
Luke supposed that their expedition had been as much of a success as it could be under the circumstances. Around them a merry crowd of families, small children aloft on their father's shoulders or snuggled in their mother's arms waited expectantly for the moment the mayor would throw the switch. At the moment the great tree flamed with light and the street decorations glowed to life, Lulu's big eyes had momentarily lit up, but she didn't say a word.
Now they walked down the street hand in hand. Lulu had taken the news about her mother too stoically. Whatever she felt was hidden behind the curious reserve that she seemed able to throw up like a wall whenever she felt threatened. He hated this aspect of her personality, because he knew that she emulated Stefan in this regard.
He surreptitiously flicked a glance sideways. The unnaturally guarded look on her face now was pure Cassadine. No Spencer child had ever shown her talent for dissembling. At her age, Lucky's face and heart had been an open book. Luke felt rather than saw her great eyes on his tense profile. His anger had tightened his grip on her hand and quickened his pace. She was struggling to keep up with his furious pace, struggling to hold back her tears.
He paled. At her age - the thought could no longer be suppressed - Lucky had trusted his father completely. Lulu didn't and in truth, had no reason to do so.
Tears pricked behind his eyelids. He slowed his pace, stopped, turned around and picked the child up.
"We'll go by Kelly's and get you some hot chocolate for the ride home, Cupcake."
"Okay, Daddy." Her taut body realxed against him and her face rested on his right shoulder.
Better, he thought.
After a quick stop at Kelly's, he walked her to the docks. Wenders waited there to take her home to Wyndemere. Luke bent down to kiss her cold cheek.
"Aunt Alexis should be there to tuck you in. Keep your chin up. Your mom is resting comfortably they said."
Lulu hugged him. "Thank you for taking me to see the Christmas tree and also for the hot chocolate," she added politely.
"You're welcome. Good night then," Luke said awkwardly.
Lulu climbed on board the launch with Wenders' help.
Luke shivered a little in the night air. He wanted a drink. He wanted to go back to the bar, and sit in his office alone. He wanted someone to cross his path. A someone in the mood for a quick, dirty fight. More dangerously still, he wanted to slip in a back entrance of the hospital, sneak upstairs, and find Laura. He wanted to sit beside her in the dark, his fears lulled by the steady rhythm of her breathing. He had never been a man who expected much of tomorrow, but it was his tomorrow he didn't trust. His tomorrow he didn't expect to see. Not hers. He needed to trace the contours of her face one more time. To whisper the things his pride had held prisoner so long.
"Good night, Daddy." A small hand lifted once more as the launch's engine sputtered, coughed, then purred steadily.
Luke knew what he didn't want. He didn't want to return to Spook Island tonight, or any other night. The island squatted malevolently, just where the inky blackness of the water merged with its mate, the night sky. Tendrils of mist felt their way across the face of the water, creeping toward land.
The launch began to back carefully away from the dock. Lulu's solemn face gleamed in the dark as she raised her hand in a last farewell.
"Stop!" Luke bellowed, and jumped aboard.
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