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Written in 2002
In 1982 Laura was abducted
by Stavros Cassadine, with his mother Helena’s knowledge, to avenge Luke’s
destruction of the Cassadine family. They
held Laura prisoner on a remote island of the coast of Greece.
During that time, Helena
managed to convince Laura that her beloved Luke had died in an avalanche.
Laura, out of desperation, thinking she had lost her entire world when
Luke died, agreed to become Stavros’ bride.
After two years passed, Helena, becoming tired of this game she was
playing with Laura, decided to let her go.
Over the two years Laura had
been gone, Luke decided to set his sights on the mayor’s seat.
With the help of his good friend Robert Scorpio, Luke won the election.
On the day of his inauguration Laura returned to him.
They moved into the mansion and looked forward to continuing their lives
where they had left off two years earlier.
Stavros Cassadine, still
being obsessed with Laura, had other plans.
One night while she was upstairs getting ready for bed, Stavros made his
move on her. A move that would
ultimately cost him his life. He
broke into her bedroom and attempted to rape her at knifepoint, while Luke, tied
to the bedpost, watched helplessly. Fortunately
for Laura, Luke broke free of his bonds, and using the bedpost that had held
him, whacked Stavros across the head.
As in all good soaps, the
chase then commenced. Luke and
Laura quickly ran from the bedroom, down the stairs, with Stavros in hot
pursuit. As he chased them he
stumbled down the stairs. He later
died in the hospital, but not before he placed a curse on them. (Probably written in by the writers for use in a future
storyline).
Luke and Laura found it
difficult getting their lives back on track, what with the demands of his
position as mayor. Putting their
private lives' first, Luke decided to resign as mayor of Port Charles, so he and
Laura could finally regain what had been lost during their two year separation.
They left Port Charles.
In the years away from Port
Charles, Luke and Laura had a son, whom they named Lucky.
They owned a little diner in Canada, and were enjoying their quiet life
until someone planted a bomb in their pick-up truck.
Fortunately for them, they were not in it at the time, but they did lose
a good friend in the explosion. They
both knew who was responsible for this…….their longtime enemy, Frank Smith.
Now that he had found them, they decided it might be safer to return
home, to Port Charles. They sent
Lucky ahead to stay with his Aunt Ruby, until they could get there.
Luke wanted to be free of
Frank Smith, only to find himself forced into helping him escape from prison.
Meanwhile, Laura did not want to start running again either, as she loved
Port Charles and wanted to remain there. Then
she found out she was pregnant and told Luke.
They came to the decision that the only way to be free of Frank Smith
permanently would be to find some type of information on him with enough clout
to stop him in his tracks. This
they did, by traveling to Atlantic City
and meeting his daughter
Jennifer, whom they found enough more than enough dirt on to stop the vendetta
that had been going on for years.
Laura gave birth to a
beautiful baby girl, whom they named Lesley Lu, after Laura’s mother.
Soon after, Luke went to Puerto Rico, where he had a final showdown with
Frank Smith. In a moment of heated
argument, Luke shot and killed him.
After that time Laura thought their lives would finally return to normal,
no more running, no longer fearing for their lives.
But it seemed as if trouble followed Luke wherever he went.
He decided to go into
business with Sonny Corinthos. They
invested in a blues club that they named Luke’s Club. On the night of the grand opening, Luke was proudly showing his new venture off to his family.
As they were leaving, the club was firebombed.
They escaped harm, but Laura was haunted by the thought of the mob
threatening their world once again.
Sonny found out it was not
Luke that had been targeted, but Frank Smith’s lawyer, Phil Cusack.
One of Sonny’s men informed him that Joe Scully, another gangster, had
ordered the hit on Cusack. A short
time later, Cusack was found murdered.
Sonny, having regarded Joe
Scully as a father, felt as though he owed him, but not as much as Scully
thought he did. Sonny discovered
that Scully wanted to become the head of Frank Smith’s mob, and have a part of
Luke’s Club as well. Luke,
worried about the safety of his family, told Laura to take Lesley Lu and go back
to Beecher’s Corner.
In a nutshell, Sonny and
Luke decided to run a sting on Scully, using Lucy Coe and her company
“Deception” as the bait. In the
end, Scully was busted with a truckload of drugs.
He went to jail, placed bail and returned to kidnap Lucy.
Luke managed to save her, while Sonny ended up shooting Scully and
killing him.
Soon after, Laura and Lesley
Lu returned home, but peace did not prevail, as another mob decided to go after
the Spencer’s, the club, and Sonny’s girlfriend, Brenda Barrett.
The attack was planned to machine-gun all three at the same moment.
Brenda, unaware of anything happening, was taking a shower in Sonny’s
penthouse and fell to the floor, screaming, as a hail of bullets flew all around
her. At this same moment, Laura was
home when she saw someone taking aim at Luke.
Thinking fast, she managed to get a gun and shot him.
For Laura this was the
proverbial “last straw”. As
much as she loved Luke, she refused to allow her family to be exposed to the
danger that followed him, any longer. She
had a heart to heart with him, then asked him to leave their home.
Their separation lasted for months because Luke could not promise her
that the danger was at an end.
In time, and because it must
have been kismet for them, they reunited and the vengeance of the mob ceased.
As time passed, they once again faced a crisis in their lives.
Their daughter Lesley Lu became extremely ill. They learned that she would need a bone marrow transplant.
Sadly, the right donor could not be found.
Unbeknownst to Laura, her
past was about to catch up with her. She
received a call telling her that, indeed, a match had been found.
Upon her meeting with the person who gave her this good news, she
discovered it was none other than Stefan Cassadine.
(dum-de-dum-dum) She had
fallen in love with, and had an affair with him, while married to his brother,
Stavros, on the Greek island. Stefan
blamed both Luke and Laura for the death of his brother years earlier, and took
inner pleasure in knowing that he alone held the key that could save their
daughter’s life. Laura did not
trust him, as she did not trust any of the Cassadine family after what they had
done to her, but she was desperate enough to accept his help, although she would
not tell Luke, for obvious reasons.
A long held secret was about
to be revealed. When Laura was held
captive on the Greek island, she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy,
while she was married to Stavros. They had named him Nikolas.
She had not seen him since she was allowed to leave the island.
Tests were performed, naming Nikolas as a perfect donor for Laura’s
little girl, Lesley Lu.
Eventually Laura had to tell
Luke the entire story, going back to when she was held prisoner by the
Cassadine’s. Of course Luke was
devastated by this, but because he loved her so deeply, he eventually forgave
her.
When Laura finally came face
to face with her now grown son, she tried earnestly to make him understand why
she had no choice but to leave him back on the island.
Stefan, being the manipulative, calculating individual that he was, and
being his mother’s son, had done everything he could in those early years, to
alienate Nikolas from his mother. Even
with all Stefan had said against Laura, Nikolas could not deny that he loved his
mother and felt an undeniable closeness to her.
In the months to come Laura
would do everything possible to wipe away the tears he must have shed, thinking
she did not love him. He would come
to realize that Stefan had lied to him for all those years.
In the days, months and
years to come, it is almost inevitable that Luke and Laura will experience
crisis after crisis. Their lives
will be in danger again, as will their children’s lives. Life will never be boring for the Spencers.
The question is, is their love really strong enough to endure anything?
What will lie ahead of them to test their loyalty to one another?
How far will they go to save their marriage?
How much grief will each be willing to take from the other before calling
it quits for good?
Having been a diehard fan of
both Luke and Laura from the debut of their characters on GH, I will forever
want them to stay together, and will hold out hope that when my grandchildren
are old enough to watch General Hospital, it will still be there, …and so will
Luke and Laura.
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