In the Dark of Night: Book One of the Dark Series

Chapter Fifty

"You know that when she gets like that it means she cares, right?" Lucky asked, as he and Tommy left the Hardy home. They had escorted Elizabeth home and were on their way back to Jason's penthouse.

"I sensed that. My mom gets like that, too. She starts in and doesn't stop until I beg for mercy," Tommy replied softly. He smiled a bittersweet smile as he remembered his mother. The heavy weight he felt began to lift as each moment passed, bringing him closer to the time when he and Simone would be reunited.

Lucky smiled at Tommy's words and glanced at him. This was the first time Lucky and Tommy were alone, and Lucky was at a loss for words. Their life experiences were so different, and he didn't want to say the wrong thing.

Lucky thought about his life. He had spent most of his it on the run. He and his family had been free from restraints and lived their lives accordingly. He couldn't imagine having his entire life controlled by anyone. Luke had raised him to be his own man and answer to no one. Lucky had grown up believing that being a man was defined by having control over his life and never relinquishing that control. The time he had spent with Tommy had shown him that being a man also meant not losing sight of oneself when the control was taken away. Being a man wasn't always based on control. Being a man came from within. Manhood was the ability to be strong in the face of the crap that life threw at you.

Lucky had never doubted his manhood, and he still didn't. He knew he was strong. His time with Elizabeth taught him that he didn't always have to be in control. There were times he willingly relinquished it to her because she needed it and because sometimes it was the only thing he could give her after everything she had been through. But as he thought about Tommy's circumstances, he doubted if he would have come out as strong as Tommy had.

"I couldn't have lived like that, man," Lucky said.

"You think I wanted to?" Tommy asked, bristling at Lucky's word as they brought him out of his reverie.

"Look, I didn't mean anything by that... Forget I said anything," Lucky replied. He realized that Tommy misunderstood him, but he doubted if any words could make it right. He really had no right to bring it up in the first place, he decided.

Tommy was quiet for a moment as Lucky's words sunk in. His years away from 'normal' society had affected him. He had a complex about the outside world, as he often thought of it. Simone tried to remind that regardless of the physical boundaries, deep down inside, everyone was the same. Everyone had insecurities that they tried to hide from everyone else. She said that when Tommy found himself on the outside again, he would find a mixture of people. Of course, some of them would look down their noses at him, but there would be others who would be sympathetic. She would give him a quick hug and tell him to give people a three-second chance before he jumped to conclusions and made assumptions. Tommy sighed and said, "Sorry about that."

"Look man, don't apologize. I shouldn't have brought it up," Lucky replied, his eyes on the sidewalk.

"Nah, I was wrong. While I was gone, I believed that everyone would look at me the same way the guards had...with disgust and hatred."

"There will be some like that, but not all. Besides, those guards were sick."

"Yeah," Tommy replied quietly. "There were times when I didn't think I could live there another day."

"How did you do it?" Lucky asked quietly, stopping under the streetlight to look Tommy in the eye.

"I had to. My mother needed me. If I killed myself and left her, I'd have been worse than the guards."