|
A random take I had as Michael and Lauren's wedding was approaching...
He looked in the mirror at the dashing figure he cut--the expensive Armani tuxedo, the perfect bow tie, the impeccable
hair cut. Michael Baldwin looked like a man who was marrying the most incredible woman in the world.
That brought a smile to his face--a wide, tooth-filled, happiest-man-on-Earth grin that exemplified exactly how he was
feeling inside. This was it... the day he had somehow survived his whole life to get to. And he wondered if anyone but Lauren
understood how monumental it all was for him.
It wasn't just his wedding day, just the day he took a wife. This was the day that someone finally, absolutely chose
him first. He was no longer second best... no longer the person someone ran to in desperation because their lover or husband
or the object of their desire wasn't coming through and they wanted his help in some scheme. No longer the child who wasn't
important enough to rescue from a dire life. Michael Baldwin had come in first in the most important race of his life. In
the search for someone who could love him despite all that was wrong inside of him, he had crossed the finish line.
Lauren Fenmore loved him. She loved his quirks and his fears and the ugliness inside of him that had nearly cost him
his whole life once upon a very dark time. Lauren loved him in the face of his petulant silences. She loved him joyous and
exuberant.
She loved him.
And God, did he love her.
He'd watched other people find this and share it and he'd envied them. He'd hated them sometimes. Like Paul and Christine.
Michael had been so jealous that he'd tried to steal their happiness for his own. It didn't matter that the marriage probably
wasn't meant to be anyway... he had done some horrible things to try and take Christine from Paul and make her his own wife
because Michael had been sure that would make him whole.
And Lauren had seen him... she'd seen his tricks and his games and his insecurities and his scheming and she had still
chosen him. And even more than that, she had trusted him with the most precious thing in her life--the son she had gone to
hell and back to protect.
She trusted him to help her do that now. She trusted him.
Michael drew in a deep breath and then turned and headed for the door. He was getting married. He and Lauren were getting
married. Today his life became the stuff he'd dreamed of for so very long.
His hand was on the knob when he heard Scott's panicked voice ring out from upstairs. Michael raced out into the Abbott
foyer from the library and saw his soon-to-be stepson racing down the stairs, something white held in his hand.
"Michael! Michael!"
Gut-wrenching fear seeped into Michael's gut as he raced forward and met Scott at the bottom of the steps.
"Mom... she's... Michael... she's gone."
Scott offered the contents of his right hand to Michael. It was Lauren's wedding gown. What was left of her wedding
gown. It had been cut to shreds and there was blood on the fabric.
People began to scream to call the police and all around him, voices began to join together in a chorus of worry and terror.
But all Michael could see was the white satin in his hand with blood he could feel in his soul belonged to her.
And just that quickly, the Michael Baldwin that Lauren Fenmore loved stepped back inside of him... and the Michael Baldwin
who was capable of anything took up front position.
Whoever had done this was going to pay... that Michael would make sure of it.
|
