This piece appeared in Afternoon TV in December 1981.

AN ATV NOVELETTE--PART II
The Legend of Luke and Laura
by Marilyn Henry

In his attempts to forget Laura Baldwin, Luke Spencer lost himself in a flurry of activity. He met a fascinating, glamorous woman, a niece of the wealthy Quartermaines, who had just arrived in Pt. Charles, and she offered him a job doing some investigative work for herself and her uncle, Edward Quartermaine (David Lewis). The assignment: find some business competitor named Cassadine who may or may not have come to town under an assumed name. The whole thing sounded a bit too mysterious to Luke and it occurred to him his own shady reputation might have been the reason the Quartermaines wanted him for the job. He was skeptical, wary, but Edward assured Luke the job was legitimate and offered a handsome fee.

Meanwhile, Luke would not allow himself to ask what was happening in Laura's life and he harbored an unreasonable resentment that she hadn't kept him informed. Each chance encounter aroused all the old feelings, but both are proud, stubborn people and they were each determined to show they could survive just fine without the other. For a time they engaged in a mild sort of one-upmanship, bragging about great jobs and fine apartments. They were miserable without each other, but unable to give in. Luke was waiting for Laura to make the first move and Laura, who has a history of cruel rejections and a dread of being hurt, simply could not make it.

Alexandria Quartermaine (Renee Alexander [sic; Anderson]) was making it clear she had more than a business interest in Luke. However, Luke was not recovered to the degree that he could work up more than curiosity about the lady. She was beautiful, flamboyant, rich, but she was also arrogant, patronizing, and demanding. Luke was insolent in the face of her blatant overtures. When she followed him home one night, he stopped her cold with, "I know what you want, Alex, and you ain't gonna get it tonight." That should have earned him a kick down the stairs, but Alexis was not easily put off. In fact, the more Luke knew of her, the less he liked and trusted her. He was sure she was lying to him about his job being simple, safe and legitimate.

His suspicions were confirmed when he came home one night to find a man with a gun waiting for him in his apartment. The man was suave, quietly menacing, spoke with an Australian accent, and asked a number of puzzling questions about an Ice Princess, a subject new to Luke. Luke was left unconscious and with a sore lump on his head, which helped fire his anger toward the Quartermaines. He stormed into their offices at ELQ International (in Frank Smith's old building), ready to quit, only to discover Laura sitting behind the desk. This almost caused him to forget what he came for--and further fueled his rage against Edward and Alex whom he told off in royal style. Edward knew how to counter this, however. He had correctly read Luke as a young man eager for prestige and position and presented his hot-headed employee with a lavish, newly furnished office, complete with brass name plate. Luke was bowled over and tried to appear blasé, when Laura made a couple of tongue-in-cheek remarks that caused him to sink into the plush chair behind his new desk and announce he would stay--for a while. Alex and Edward were amazed, but only Edward seemed to understand what part Laura played in Luke's decision.

Interviewing cabbies, chasing down leads, Luke became almost compulsive in his need to lose himself in this new assignment, leaving himself as little time as possible to think about Laura. Fate wouldn't let it alone, however; their destiny was set long ago. On the night of the Quartermaine Christmas party, he learned he and Laura were living one floor apart in the same waterfront tenement. They were stunned and outraged when the landlady accused them of hating "arranged" this proximity, but by the time they fought it out Luke has offered to drive Laura to the party and both were behaving outwardly cool while being inwardly overjoyed.

Laura had long known how to handle Luke. The chase, the challenge had always intrigued Luke. By being a bit stand-offish, a little reluctant, she invited his need to assert his claim on her. She asked that he move out of their building--causing him to dig in and refuse. He suggested a carpool to work and when she demured she had no car, he shrugged and said she could help buy gas. An uneasy truce had been formed.

Knowing where Laura was night and day has eased the pressure on Luke. He could now concentrate on earning that fat fee. The immediate problem seemed to be to get through the Christmas holidays without going sentimental and buying the girl a present.

Another problem was their old friend, hitman Hutch (Rick Moses), who was recovering in General Hospital from surgery to remove a bullet from near his heart. Luke's feelings toward Hutch were mixed; he liked him, but could not feel quite easy about him because he identified with Hutch and when he looked at the man he thought, "There but for the grace of Laura, go I." When Luke and Laura visited him together, Hutch's pleasure in their apparent love was too genuine to spoil. They sensed their charade of closeness was helping bring about a profound change in the young killer.

Alex, who was hardly the type, got a chance to play lady-in-distress when a defanged rattlesnake was delivered to her at the office. Luke was too busy getting the snake fastened down in the box to notice Alex's pretense of clinging, but Laura, who had bravely helped him with the snake, hadn't missed a flutter of Alex's lashes. When Luke set out to trail the man who delivered the snake, Laura inserted herself into the search and their rapport was instant; it was as if they had never been apart as they bickered, exchanged views, confided. Then Laura asked one too many questions and Luke suddenly remembered his resolve to keep her out of his life and his business. He coldly determined not to forget again.

Edward had added a bit more information to Luke's mission with ELQ: the Ice Princess was a diamond mine, he said, and the boundary papers were missing. He now wanted Luke to get them back. Luke didn't quite buy it, but he had no real reason to doubt them. Anyway, working for ELQ allowed him to keep Laura covered and the job had that element of adventure which appeals to Luke. Moreover, his digging had uncovered the identity of the Australian, one Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), an international financier and wheeler-dealer (or so it was thought at the time). Never one to let a slight go by, Luke wanted to get even for the rap on the head Scorpio gave him.

Though he was not ready to forgive and take her back, Luke was ever aware of Laura, as she was of him, and when he saw her doctor father leaving her apartment one night with his medical bag, Luke couldn't help wondering if she could be pregnant. Before he could decide if that would dismay or please him, he learned Rick was there to treat a friend of Laura's--a male friend. Now he had a new worry.

Laura's disappointment at being cut out of Luke's latest adventure was severe. Her every attempt to help was met with rebuff. Then her friend Claudia (Bianca Ferguson) gave Laura some good advice: men want what they don't have--make a man jealous and he'll come around. The man who burst through the kitchen doors of Calhoun's diner to grab a trucker by the throat just for commenting on Laura's shapely legs, was a prime candidate for this treatment. Laura had met a handsome Australian (helped him, in fact, on the night Luke returned the knock on the head), and she arranged to date the man at the same restaurant where she knew Luke was meeting Alex on business.

Luke was dumbfounded to see his Laura seated beside the good looking, continental Scorpio in the elegant Versailles Room. She was absolutely radiant, incandescent, and Alex, for all her attempts at gaiety, simply faded into the wallpaper. Sitting across from Laura, watching her glow under the attentions being paid her by Scorpio, was more than Luke could bear and he almost went out of control, making a crude, petty ass of himself. His reaction was all Laura needed to confirm the fact that Luke did, indeed, still want her.

Scorpio made Luke an intriguing offer: bring him the Ice Princess statue and Scorpio would pay Luke $50,000! Luke immediately bluffed the Quartermaines into admitting they lied; the Ice Princess was not a bunch of boundary papers, but the largest diamond in the world. Alex painted it black, mounted it on a base and shipped it from Rio to Pt. Charles, where it was stolen off the docks. Scorpio and the brothers Cassadine were after it for its enormous value and somehow Luke must recover it before the others found it. The Quartermaines' constant lying had made Luke dubious of all they said and yet he couldn't change camps and leave Laura behind at ELQ. He decided to take her out and try to persuade her to quit her job before things got dangerous.

Laura flatly refused to quit ELQ, but she was delighted to be out with him and took the opportunity to bring certain matters into the open. She startled Luke by admitting she realized the rape was not really rape and facing that fact in front of relatives and friends at the police station had been too much for the self-protective child she had been. She also informed him Scott dropped out of sight before she could serve him with the divorce papers and she had been unable to locate him.

All this straight talk was a bit overwhelming to Luke. He told her he felt he loved her too much, that he lost a part of himself in his obsession with her, and that he had to gain more control if they were ever to be together. She was let down, but she accepted this, telling him she would wait.

Meantime she saw no reason to let him take her for granted, so she continued to date Robert Scorpio, to Luke's chagrin. He poured his energies into the search for the Ice Princess, hiring cabbie Slick Jones (Eddie Ryder) to help him out with the leg work. Scorpio, a persistent man, decided if Luke wouldn't work for him, then he would simply follow Luke around until he was led to the IP. When Scorpio tried to buy his way around the waterfront, he quickly learned Luke had an advantage money cannot buy: loyal friends who gladly help for nothing.

Alex asked Laura to find and rent a secluded apartment for a visiting scientist named Kurt Wheeler, whose real name was James DuVal (Arthur Roberts), a man in town to work on a project for ELQ. Alex impressed on Laura the need for secrecy about both the project and Dr. Wheeler, who might be lured away if competitors should learn of his work. Laura gave it little thought; she was preoccupied with worry about Luke and whatever he was doing. Could it be dangerous?

Luke was gathering new friends at the waterfront and he was especially grateful to Rose (Loanne Bishop), who trusted him enough to give him a job when no one else would. Alex couldn't understand this kind of loyalty, even complained about it, but this only caused Luke to dislike the woman more. What he did not know was how Alex put Laura down at the office and how gamely Laura remained impervious.

Lead after lead turned out to he dead for Luke. He searched Benny-the-fence's warehouse (with a little unexpected help from Scorpio), but though he found other items stolen at the same time, he did not find the Ice Princess. Robert had inferred Alex herself was a thief, that she stole the diamond in the first place, which left Luke ever more suspicious of her. Annoying as it was to see Scorpio with Laura, Luke was forming a grudging sort of admiration for the man, though he still did not trust him.

When Laura spoke to a stranger (Kurt Wheeler) at the Pt. Charles Day parade, Luke was livid. It was obvious to him she flirted just to arouse his jealousy. He slammed into her apartment to call her on it and found himself hauling her into his arms and kissing her passionately. Nothing had been lost: they were as warm for each other as ever.

The ice had been broken. A crisis in Laura's family found Luke doing husband duty, helping her babysit her cousin Steven Lars, accompanying her to her mother's house to bid her departing uncle goodbye. So natural was this behavior it was as if they have long been married, as if those vows they exchanged in the small cafe months before really took. Still, Luke was holding back from a total reunion with her. He was willing to have breakfasts with her, drive her places, spend time with her, but he knew exactly what the Webbers and the Baldwins and her other friends thought of him and he still had the notion money would make him respectable enough for them, money would make him accepted. His hesitation was bewildering to Laura; she tried to be patient and understanding, but the closer they became, the harder it was for her.

Her understanding was given the acid test when Luke took up with a well-stacked blonde floozy named Emma Lutz (Merrie L. Ross). The wife of a cabbie who moonlights by heisting shipments off the docks, Emma seemed the likeliest person to have the IP. Luke wooed his way into her apartment, only to come up empty-handed again. He was getting desperate now because Laura was as tantalizingly eager for him as he was for her and yet he couldn't make his move without that $50,000 bonus Alex promised as a reward for finding the Ice Princess.

He turned up at Laura's door looking so discouraged her heart went out to him and she immediately set about to cheer him up and restore his confidence. "Oh, you're better than dial-a-prayer," he accused, seeing through her helpful pep talk. He had to admit, though, that this new, strong, independent Laura was a wonder; she had adapted to life in the slums, to hard work and self-sufficiency, in a way he would not have believed possible of her a year earlier. She had also developed a new directness and had done everything but paint arrows on the floor leading him to her bed, but he couldn't make the commitment without the cash in his hand for their future. He had to have it.

Emma Lutz did indeed have the IP all along and when Lila Quartermaine sponsored an art auction to benefit General Hospital, social-climbing Emma decided to donate that ugly modern sculpture. When it turned up as part of a group of art objects pictured on the front page of the newspaper, it sent several people into a panic: Alex, Edward. Luke, Robert, and Robert's new "partner", Anthony Cassadine (Andre Landzaat), who had been living on his yacht in Pt. Charles Harbor and calling himself Tony Castle. All made plans to snatch the IP at the auction.

His own plan seemed a cinch and Luke couldn't wait any longer; he went ahead with taking Laura out for a big evening. While violins played, her eyes sparkled at him over the champagne glasses and he knew at last their love was equal. Never comfortable for long in such surroundings as the Versailles Room, Luke stole the glasses and candles off the table and took Laura down to the Harbor, where they set up their own private table on a crate on the docks. Once again he had created a little fantasy world for her. He was about to tell her he loved her when they were interrupted by Alex, who was inquiring about his plan for the auction. Alex did not miss the warm, intimate looks passing between them.

Luke was still determined to stay in control and though Laura made no attempt to hide her desire and even invited him to stay with her, he remembered the night they spent together before which had made her turn her back on him in shame all those months ago. He didn't want to chance further regrets. This time he wanted all the loose ends tied, with money for their future in his hands and a divorce from Scott in hers. He amazed himself by saying goodnight, but not before he asked her to marry him. She was ecstatic.

Laura's mother and Luke's sister were working at the auction hall and while Laura went there to tell them about the engagement, Luke was busy putting the finishing touches on his plan to steal the IP from the block. It was all a matter of timing--a handy master light switch and some fast footwork.

Next month: The auction leads to further adventures with the Ice Princess and Luke and Laura again spend the summer as super sleuthes [sic].