“Mom. How come I have to get up early on a Saturday and Nick gets to sleep in?” McKenzie Baldwin complained loudly as she made her way down the staircase. At 11 with blonde hair and blue eyes, McKenzie was a miniature version of her mother on the outside and very much her father’s daughter on the inside.

“Because you wanted to be on the soccer team,” Laura replied calmly as she tried to decide which box of cereal to put on the table. Shrugging, she put the Grape Nuts on the table and the Frosted Flakes back on the shelf in an effort to be healthier.

“Remind me again why soccer is such a big deal,” McKenzie grumbled as she took the box of cereal her mother had put away and poured herself a bowl.

“I think it had something to do with a certain assistant coach,” Tanner Baldwin entered the kitchen grabbing an orange from the bowl of fruit on the counter. “13. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Answers to the name of Lucas.”

“Mom!” McKenzie could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. “Tanner’s teasing me.”

“Tanner stop teasing your sister,” Laura said absentmindedly as she went over her to do list.

“I thought that was why you guys decided to have the pipsqueak,” Nick walked into the kitchen, his hair still tousled from sleep. “So that Tanner and I would have someone to tease.”

“Mom!”

Laura looked up from her list of things to do and sighed. “Just for that, the two of you can take your sister to her soccer practice this morning.”

“Mom!” Tanner and Nick protested simultaneously.

“I’m meeting Emily for a picnic later.”

“I was going to help Stone with his bike this morning.”

Laura shook her head. She turned to Tanner. “The game will be over in time for you to have your picnic. And as for you,” she turned to Nick this time. “I’m not sure I like you hanging around Stone Cates.”

“It’s not that big a deal. Stone just needs an extra pair of hands to help him change his carburetor this morning and since he helped me when the Mustang broke down last week, I owe him.”

Laura eyed her son warily. ‘The last time you and Stone got together you came home with a tattoo.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “That was almost a year ago, not the last time Stone and I were together. I promise no tattoos no piercing no nothing.”

“Fine.” Laura paused. “But you still have to take your sister to her practice this morning,” Laura cut off her sons’ further protests. “No complaints. Your father had to do some research for a client and I have to finish those preliminary story boards for that new book this weekend or my editor is going to be very angry with me.”

“Fine,” Tanner grumbled as he made his way to the living room and plopped on the couch. “But if Emily decides to never speak to me again and I die a bitter old man it will all be your fault.”

“Oh please. Like Emily would ever get mad at you for anything. The two of you are so sickeningly sweet its like watching some really bad episode of a really bad soap opera,” McKenzie smirked satisfied to find the opportunity to repay her brother for his earlier teasing.

“You better cut it out squirt,” Nick warned her softly. “If we have to go to your practice that means we’ll have lots of opportunities to talk to a certain someone...”

“You wouldn’t?”

“I might.” Nick laughed as McKenzie shut her mouth and concentrated on eating her cereal. “I’m going to go call Caroline and see if she can find Stone and let him know I’ll be by this afternoon.”

Laura’s thoughts froze. “Caroline?”

Nick nodded. “Caroline Spencer? You know her. Her mother owns Kelly’s. She and Stone are....an item I guess. Since he doesn’t have a phone and she does....”

“Caroline Spencer?”

“Yeah. Caroline Spencer.” Nick repeated softly, his concern growing at his mother’s sudden paleness. “Are you okay mom?

Laura took a deep breath. “I’m fine. Just a little tired all of a sudden.”

“Maybe you should call your editor and tell him you’ll be a little late and take a break this weekend. It’s not like they are going to find someone else to do it.”

“I’m fine Nick. Honest.” Laura smiled weakly.

Tanner walked in from the living room. “What’s up?”

“Mom’s not feeling well. Any chance you can take the squirt with you to Emily’s so that Mom can rest?”

“Me? Why not you?”

“Oh yeah. That’s smart. Let McKenzie hang around the ally while Stone and I work on his bike.”

Tanner started to speak and thought better of it. “Okay. Fine. She can come with me to Em’s after practice. But I swear you owe me big for this one.”

“Fine,” Nick replied easily. “I’m sure you’ll cash in your debt appropriately. In the meantime, let me go take a shower and we’ll get McKenzie to her practice so that Mom can have some peace and quiet.”

Tanner shook his head as he watched his brother head upstairs. “I swear he sounds more and more like Dad every day.” Tanner took a good look at his mother. “But he’s right in this case Mom. You do look rather tired. Try to get some sleep while we’re gone. Em and I can watch after the squirt. Who knows? Maybe I can impress Em with the big brother act...” Tanner’s voice trailed off as he headed back into the living room and McKenzie headed to the family room to find the soccer equipment she had haphazardly discarded yesterday afternoon.

Laura sat in the kitchen for a moment, just listening to the sounds of her family. McKenzie hunting for her cleats. Tanner watching a basketball game on TV. Nick taking a shower upstairs.

Nick. Nick who was going to spend the afternoon with Caroline Spencer. Bobbie Spencer’s daughter. Luke Spencer’s niece.

Nick’s cousin.

She closed her eyes. They had to tell him the truth and they had to tell him soon. It was that simple. And that hard.

Laura thought back to the hecticness of the last hour or so. Trying to get two teenage boys up and fed. A preteener off to soccer practice. Her own day started. A thousand things that needed to be done. A few hours to do them in.

She had a feeling that her life wasn’t going to be quite this simple for a long time to come.

She wasn’t sleeping an hour later when Scott returned. Instead she was sitting in the room they had set aside for her studio, a blank storyboard in front of her. She was supposed to be drawing pictures of a friendly dragon. But every time she finished the drawing the dragon looked decidedly like Luke Spencer and anything but friendly.

She sighed and crumpled her tenth try as the door opened.

She glanced at her watch. He was home too early for it to be good news.

He came to stand in the doorway.

“The kids?”

“Gone. Nick and Tanner took McKenzie to practice. Elizabeth is spending the day with Audrey.”

“Good.” Scott put his briefcase down and wrapped his arms around her as she moved closer to him. “I needed this. You were sleeping so soundly when I woke up that I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“I wish you had. I miss not waking up next to you.” She hesitates, not wanting to break the mood but knowing she has to know. “What did you find out?”

“There’s not much we can do unless we want to get nasty and drag this thing through the courts. Spencer has petitioned the courts for a DNA test to establish paternity. He’ll be out of jail in a few days and wants the tests done as soon as he gets to GH.”

“I don’t get it. How can he do this?” Laura is suddenly angry beyond belief. “Who the hell does he think he is? God. It was hard enough getting over what he did to me. It’s been almost twenty years and I still flinch when I hear that damn song. I still can’t go into nightclubs without squeezing your hand so damned tight I’m afraid I’ll break a bone. It took everything I had to rebuild my life, our life, after that night. To stand up in that witness chair and have to tell a courtroom of strangers what he did to me...how he hurt me...and then to listen to him say that it wasn’t rape. And God when the jury agreed with him I almost died.” Laura shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as she turned away from Scott, caught in the agony of her memories. “He should be the one paying. He was the one who raped me. Why am I the one suffering? Luke Spencer raped me and I feel like I’m paying the price and nobody is doing anything to punish him.”

Laura’s voice was loud and desperate. His own heart aching, Scott walked up behind Laura and wrapped his arms around her shaking form.

“It’s okay.” He whispered the words soothingly. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Nick walked in through the living room door about to ask his mom if she knew where McKenzie kept her lucky hair scrunchy when he heard his mother’s voice and the pain in every word made him stand still and listen.

“He is. He’s hurting me now just like he hurt me then. It’s not fair. He raped me. Luke Spencer raped me I’m the victim here.”

Nick stood in shock? His mother raped? A burning anger filled him at the thought of his gentle mother being brutalized by some creep. When? How? He moved closer, still moving quietly. Luke Spencer? Spencer? As in Caroline? Was that why his mother had become so pale when he mentioned Caroline? Was that it? Was this Luke Spencer somehow related to Caroline? Had he brought back bad memories when he mentioned her name? What was going on?

“Shhh....” Nick heard his father comforting his mother quietly and softly, a sense of relief filled him. His father would help his mother. His father would take care of everything like he always did.

“He can’t hurt us, Laura. We won’t let him. Nothing can hurt our family. Nothing.”

Our family? Was the bastard threatening his mother? He wouldn’t let anyone hurt any of them, Nick promised himself silently.

“This can. Oh God Scott this can and you know it. I’ve tried so hard to forget. I’ve spent almost twenty years trying to put that night behind me and now its like its happening all over again.”

“It’s not though. I swear it. We’ll get through this.”

“We have to tell them. We have to tell them everything and we have to do it soon.”

“We will. Tonight. When all the kids are home, we’ll sit them down and tell them the truth.” Scott gently ran his hands through her hair. “We’ll tell them all the truth.”

The Truth? What truth? Nick can feel his heart begin to pound as a sudden sense of forbidding fills him. He begins to close the distance between him and his mother’s studio.

“I don’t think I can handle it if he hates us.”

“He won’t.” Scott says softly. “I told you the other night. Nick loves us. He’ll be angry, but he’ll understand.”

Nick halts, his mind screaming. Understand what? Even as he asks the question his mind begins to piece together the puzzle.

Laura turns and her eyes full of anguish and pain stare up into her husband’s. “How are we supposed to do this? How do I tell the child I love more than anything that his father isn’t the father he adores but the man who raped me?”

Nick makes no sound really, just a whimper, but its enough to catch the attention of both of his parents who stare at him with shock and dismay.

His face reflecting a myriad of feelings, ranging from shock to self-disgust, Nick Baldwin shakes his head, praying that his parents will tell him its all a mistake. They were practicing for a play. Something that explains what he just heard without tearing his world asunder.

They don’t.

“Nick,” Laura moves closer to her son but he just stares at her and takes a step away from her.

The look in his eyes is one she will never ever be capable of forgetting.

Even though she sees it for only a split second before he turns and flees out the door.

Scott moves to follow him, but Laura grabs him to stop him. “Don’t. He needs time alone for a little bit.”

Fighting against his own instinct to comfort his hurting son, Scott turns to his wife and numbly buries himself in her.

Statesville Prison

Luke Spencer sits on the cot on his cell. Twenty four hours and he’s out of here. After almost twenty years being locked up, he was getting out of here. Back to Port Charles.

And to the son he had waited almost twenty years to claim.