One of the hottest debates of human history in the social sciences is whether or not people are the products of nature or nurture. Experts talk of serial killers and rapists, raising the question of whether or not they became monsters as a result of negligent parenting or turned homicidal due to an inevitable makeup of genes and DNA that sealed their fate before birth.
What Laurie Prescott had determined by the time she turned twelve years old was that we couldn't possibly be the products of nurture alone. Her own family was concrete evidence of that. Laurie, the youngest of three full-blooded siblings, knew that her parents did their very best with all three of her, her brother, and her sister. They were raised the same way, on the same values, using the same parenting tactics, asked to follow the same rules, under the same roof.
And yet, the three of them couldn't have possibly been more different.
The oldest Prescott sibling was her big brother, Jackson, also commonly referred to as Jack in his prepubescent and teen years. He was a full five and a half years older than Laurie, but the two of them couldn't have been closer in their early life. Jackson looked out for both his little sisters throughout their grade school years. Laurie was coddled the most by both Jackson and their parents; a default role she played as a result of being born the youngest daughter.
Jackson was the sibling Laurie was closest to. Her older sister, Alison, was only two years older than her. The two girls squabbled and fought on a regular basis. They fought over clothes, food, toys, play space, sharing a bedroom, hogging hot water in the bathroom, makeup, and who got to chose the tape to play on the ride to school each morning. Laurie was usually handed the benefit of the doubt in her fights with Alison; another advantage to being the youngest. By the time they entered their teen years, Alison practically hated Laurie. She blamed her little sister for everything that went missing in her bedroom, for every chore she was asked to do that Laurie never had to, for every time she got in trouble for something that, in her mind, was really Laurie's fault.
In spite of the complex but still typical family dynamics among the Prescott family, they had an otherwise pretty good childhood. Their parents were never rich, but they didn't struggle for money either. They had a nice house, and even though the two girls had to share a room for most of their early years, it was big enough that they didn't feel like they were on top of each other all the time. That was, until they started fighting constantly.
When Alison turned fifteen and Laurie thirteen, Jackson graduated from high school. Soon after, he moved into the unfinished basement and fixed the spare bedroom up down there himself with a little help from his father. Thankfully, just as the girls' bickering was about to hit an all time high, they were able to separate into their own bedrooms.
Laurie was forced to take Jack's smaller room because she was younger and Alison was pushy. So Alison got the bigger bedroom to herself, though Laurie didn't care much about that. She was simply relieved to have some space from her big sister who was turning more and more into a cruel mean girl with each passing day.
Laurie's mother, Diana Prescott, was a professional baker and chef at a local restaurant. Her father, Benjamin Prescott, was the manager at a bank. Her father made two thirds of the family income, but he always told Diana and the kids that there was no 'his money' and 'mommy's money.' There was only all of their money, family money. What was his was theirs, and vise versa.
Benjamin had no idea that this state of mind would soon come back to bite him in the butt. It had done nothing but good for their family until the day he noticed that money was going missing from his wallet. He let it go the first time, and even the second time he noticed it. But eventually, he realized the stealing wasn't going to stop. It was never much, only one or two bills at a time and never any bigger than a $50. Though, that wasn't the point. He knew he couldn't accuse anyone of it directly, having no idea who it was that was stealing from him or why. So he called a family meeting one night in hopes that he taught his kids well enough to own up to it. But none of the kids cracked; each one of them looked just as confused as the others.
Benjamin and Diana were both disappointed in the kids, although it was difficult considering they didn't know which kid they were supposed to be disappointed in. Ben started bringing his wallet into the master bedroom with him at night, assuming that was when the thief was most likely to strike. But whoever it was, they were sneaky, and they somehow managed to get in and out during the night undetected.
The mystery was never solved, at least not for a couple months. And when it first was solved, it wasn't by Benjamin or Diana.
Fourteen-year-old Laurie crept downstairs in the night, quiet as a mouse down the creaky stairs. She tip-toed into the kitchen, and practically jumped out of her skin when she saw someone hovering over the counter.
"Jack?" she whispered as loudly as she could without breaking her voice from the whisper.
Her brother too jumped out of his skin at the sound of her voice. She watched him shove a piece of paper into the pocket of his pajama bottoms in an attempt to prevent her from seeing it, even though it was too dark for her to see much anyway.
"What the hell, Laur!" he whispered harshly.
"Sorry" she shrugged as she took a couple hesitant steps towards him. "I didn't know anyone was down here."
"Go back to bed" Jackson demanded as he turned away from her, his hand deep in his pocket as he crinkled the paper between his fingers.
"What's in your—" she began to ask, but stopped herself abruptly as it clicked in her brain. "It's you" she finally said, wide-eyed, "you're the one who's been stealing from daddy?"
"Where'd you get that idea?" her brother asked defensively, his composure slipping through his fingertips.
"Show me" Laurie demanded, placing her hands confidently on her hips.
"Show you what?" Jackson continued to play dumb, scoffing dismissively at her.
"You know what" Laurie's anger was starting to come through in her voice a little. "I'm not stupid. Show me what's in your pocket or I'll scream for Dad right now."
"You wouldn't" he whispered harshly, taking an intimidating step towards his little sister.
"Show me or I will. I don't lie, you know how much Mom hates lying" Laurie reminded him, "and you lied to them about the money. I'll tell them unless you show me."
"You've got nothing" Jackson scoffed, "I'm not stupid either, Laurie, and you have no proof. Besides, I have no reason to believe you won't tell them whether I show you what I have or not."
"No, you don't" Laurie agreed slowly, "but you do have my word. And like I said, I don't lie."
Jackson sighed heavily, pulling the $20 and $50 bills from his pocket and slamming them down on the counter in defeat. Laurie took a step toward him and studied the crumpled bills.
"Why?" she finally asked.
"I'm just in a tight situation, alright?" he vaguely explained. "I owe somebody."
"Who?" Laurie asked forcefully.
"A friend. It doesn't matter, okay? It has nothing to do with you, or Mom and Dad. Just stay out of it" Jackson begged her.
"You're stealing from them" Laurie pointed out, "you know how wrong that is, don't you?"
"Course I do" he sighed, "you really think I'd be doing it if I had any other choice?"
"How much do you owe anyway?" Laurie asked curiously, tilting her head to catch a glimpse of her brother from another angle.
"Doesn't matter" Jackson dismissed her again. "You said I have your word you won't tell."
"You do" Laurie sighed sadly, "but only if you promise me you aren't lying, that you aren't doing anything stupid with that money."
"I promise."
Laurie kept her brother's secret until the secret could no longer keep itself. One day, she and Alison returned from school to find an ambulance parked in front of their house. The girls locked eyes and ran through the front door, an identical urgency and fear in each of their eyes. Immediately, their mother was there in the doorway and turned the girls away, forcing them to go back out onto the porch.
"What's going on?" Alison demanded to know.
"Everything's gonna be okay" their mother answered, but the worry in her voice was apparent to both her daughters.
"Is Daddy hurt? Or Jack?" Laurie asked, her voice shaking urgently like an earthquake as tears formed in her eyes.
"Everything's gonna be okay" Diana continued to repeat each time the girls asked a question.
Later on, Laurie found out that her brother had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance after her father found him passed out in his bedroom in the basement. He overdosed on some yet-to-be identifed street drug. It took fourteen-year-old Laurie a little to connect the money her brother was stealing with the addiction he somehow managed to hide all this time.
Eventually, Jackson recovered and came home after a few days in the hospital. He was surprised to discover that his youngest sister hadn't ratted him out for stealing the money, not even after his trip to the hospital. Jackson was forced to come clean himself, and spent several months in a rehab center kicking the addiction.
Before he left for rehab, Jackson asked Laurie why she didn't tell their parents about the money.
"Because I don't lie" Laurie reminded him, and he realized just how better a job his parents did with her than they did with him. How or why, he didn't know. He didn't understand his addiction any better than they did.
Jackson managed to kick the drug addiction that he first developed at nineteen. Meanwhile, Laurie stayed on a relatively typical path in her teenage years up until her graduation. She didn't have perfect grades, she struggled in math and science, and with social anxiety. She'd been involved in her fair share of drama in high school, and suffered two breakups with boys she hoped to marry at some point in time. But for the most part, Laurie's childhood was free of atypical issues.
Alison, on the other hand, suffered a worse fate than her little sister. By her junior year, she was diagnosed with depression and was on medication for it. Her grades slipped for the remainder of her junior year, and their parents struggled to get her out of bed in the morning. First, it was Jackson's addiction and then a year and a half later it was Alison's mental health crisis. Eventually, Alison too got a bit better after learning ways to cope and manage her mental illness with the help of therapy and after changing and trying new medications. She managed to graduate high school with reasonable grades, and attended community college. Laurie graduated two years later, and was accepted to the University of Georgia to study sociology.
Laurie's brother and sister's battles with addiction and mental illness in their late teen years were substantial factors in Laurie's decision to study sociology. Psychology was something she also considered, but she was turned off by the science of it all. Sociology focused more on the social and emotional aspects of the human condition, and Laurie wanted a career in which she could directly look at ways to understand people better, people who weren't as lucky as she was to make it out of childhood without a mark on her mental health chart.
Laurie's mom had been a major stickler for human decency, honest, goodness, and honor. She taught all three of her kids to be honest people, to stay away from drugs and alcohol, to talk to them if they were feeling suicidal or depressed. Somehow, Laurie was the only one of the three who managed to come out of their identical childhoods unscathed. She wondered why her brother and sister fell victim to mental illness but she hadn't. She wondered why her brother resorted to lying after being drilled his whole life about honesty and integrity. She wondered why her sister suffered in silence and disregarded her parents' concern for her deteriorating health and education in spite of how they emphasized the importance of health and education Alison's whole life.
Another thing Laurie learned directly from her mother was her knack for neatness. Laurie and Diana both had a pretty severe case of OCD. Laurie wasn't sure if it was genetic, or if she somehow managed to catch the disorder from spending so much time with her mother. Diana was strict with the kids about cleaning up after themselves, about being home not a minute after curfew, about choosing good friends (she vetted all of their parents, refused to let them spend the night anywhere without having a thorough conversation with the parents about the rules of their houses), about following said rules, about lying and keeping secrets, about doing their chores, about getting good grades, about respecting adults, women and children alike, about using their manners and behaving appropriately in public.
Laurie was closer to their mother than either Jackson or Alison. Diana struggled with Alison specifically; the girl was more resistant to the rules and wasn't as serious about them as her younger sister. Jackson, on the other hand, managed to fly under the radar. He was good on the outside, followed the rules and was always respectful. By the time he developed his addiction, he'd started to spend less time with the family and claimed to be too tired all the time. At first, Diana and Ben didn't think much of it because Alison had been exhibiting similar behavior for a while. Little did they know that Jackson wasn't just depressed, he was just much better at hiding the truth than Alison was.
Both Jackson and Laurie ended up finding romance while Laurie was a student at the University of Georgia. Laurie's relationship with Jeffrey Langley prevailed for months and eventually years. Unfortunately for Jackson, he turned back to his addiction after several years clean and the end of his almost two-year relationship was a consequence of that. For years after that, Jackson's addiction was on and off. He was in and out of rehab, constantly insisting that he was better and had changed for good which didn't turn out to be true. At twenty-one years old, Laurie finally concluded that it probably never would be.
As for Alison, she hadn't been able to find a stable relationship for the life of her. Every one she'd been in was toxic, abusive, or had ended as a result of her depressive disorder when it came back in waves. Alison's significant others would often fall victim to her depression, and they'd conclude that they couldn't help her if she wasn't willing to help herself. Like Jackson, her mental health problems kept coming and going. Sometimes, she'd be doing okay and then all of a sudden she wouldn't be.
The saddest day of Laurie's life thus far was one crisp, October day she received a phone call from her sister. It was the middle of the day and Laurie was in class during her third year of college. She sent her sister's call to voicemail, mentally telling herself she'd call Ali back after class. But after sending her to voicemail twice, Laurie finally stepped out of the lecture hall to answer the phone. She told her friend sitting beside her that she'd be back in a few minutes, but little did she know she wouldn't return.
Jeffrey found his girlfriend broken down outside the the lecture hall, sobbing like a distressed infant. She called him after she got off the phone with Alison. In a state of hysteria, she told him that her big brother had just died of a drug overdose earlier that morning. Jeffrey and Laurie blew off their classes for the rest of that day and went to be with the Prescott family.
Although, Jackson Prescott didn't die completely in vein. His younger sister, Alison, had made the decision to start taking her mental health more seriously after seeing what addiction costed her brother. She got serious about therapy for the first time since high school, and started taking her medication regularly again. She began to work through all the relationship trauma and complications she endured in previous relationships. She knew she would never be a picture of perfect mental health, but she vowed to try her best each and everyday to do everything she could to take care of herself, and to reach out whenever she needed support. Of course, she wasn't always successful, but she never gave up on herself or those who loved her. That was what got Alison Prescott through each day, month, and year after her brother's death.
A year after Jackson died, Laurie graduated from university alongside Jeffery. The two soon landed jobs in their respective fields and moved out of the little apartment they were renting off campus. They moved into a little starter house and shortly thereafter, they got engaged, and then married two years later. Then eventually, they finally got pregnant after several months of trying to conceive.
Finding out she was pregnant was the happiest Laurie had been in a long time. She'd been devastated for so long after Jackson's death. He was her protector in childhood, her best friend until she met Jeffery, someone she could always rely on. Watching him struggle with addiction was the hardest moment of her young life at that point. She wondered whether or not telling her parents about the money when she first found out would've made a difference. But deep down, she knew that she alone was not powerful enough to have changed the course of Jackson's fate. Addiction was much bigger than she was at fourteen, and so she couldn't blame herself for his death.
After living through her brother's battle with addiction and hearing Jeffery's horrific childhood story, Laurie realized that pain was all around her. She was lucky enough to have only been an indirect victim of it; affected only through those she loved. But it was enough to make her paranoid for the little baby boy in her belly. She knew she had to shield him from pain, that it'd be her job to protect him at all costs. She thought about all the things her parents taught her about honesty and goodness. In spite of their best efforts to raise her and her siblings well, Alison and Jackson fell victim to pain and suffering. Laurie realized she couldn't protect her son from that, not for certain, but she'd damn well die trying if it ever came down to that.
Laurie was happy to allow Jeffery to name Ralph after Braxton Carson. Laurie knew that it was through his guidance and support that her husband became the person he is today, and that there might not be a Jeffery and Laurie, and therefore no Ralph, without him.
Laurie was almost too much like her mother for her own good, and Jeffery would often remind her of that. She took a lot of her parenting tactics straight out of Diana Prescott's handbook. She was always stressed, a stickler about the rules. The best thing she learned from her mother (and her father too) was about goodness and integrity. Jeffery and her values around the topic aligned almost perfectly, and therefore Ralph was taught about the importance of respect, honesty, integrity, and empathy on a daily basis. Sometimes, Jeffery was driven a little crazy by the way his wife was paranoid about letting Ralph walk outside without holding one of their hands, about letting him learn to ride a bike, about taking the school bus, even about riding in the car. She was overprotective, determined to shield him from any and every form of potential danger imaginable.
This, she knew deep down, was breaded from her experiences with her brother and sister. In spite of everything their parents had done for them growing up, Jackson and Alison endured a lot of trauma despite an otherwise healthy upbringing. Laurie was paranoid about Ralph somehow suffering a similar fate. She wanted to do everything in her power to ensure that would never happen. She wanted to protect him from mental health problems as much as from any other form of danger.
And for the first twelve years of Ralph's life, she pretty much succeeded at that. He was growing up to be one of the most lovely and honorable kids Laurie knew. It wasn't just that Ralph was her son, she knew that he was a good kid. She'd met several other parents in Ralph's early childhood, with kids who threw tantrums in public, hit their parents when they were mad, didn't understand the concept of sharing even by the second or third grade. Laurie was so proud of Ralph most of the time, proud of his kindness, and of the goodness in his heart.
Though, Laurie knew that nurture wasn't everything. She knew that goodness was part of Ralph's nature, that his heart was pumping blood that was comprised of both hers and Jeffery's. The two of them were both loving and caring at heart, and Ralph inherited the best of both of them. There wasn't a day that went by that Laurie was less than proud to be Ralph's mother.
But of course, Ralph was still a kid. He wasn't perfect, and he sometimes threw tantrums, got upset, cried for no good reason, and refused to listen. The thing was, Laurie never expected Ralph to be perfect. He just had to try his best, and most of the time, especially as he got older, his occasional outbursts and moments of frustration usually came from a reasonable place. Ralph always apologized when he knew he did something wrong, and almost never repeated the same mistakes twice.
Laurie always vetted Ralph's friends in elementary school, and their parents too, just like her own mother did. But when he moved to Bainbridge for military school, that wasn't really an option anymore. Jeffery told her that she'd just have to trust that Ralph was smart enough to pick good friends, that he knew better than to surround himself with inherently bad people.
Laurie liked Jack Merridew at first, she really did. What she didn't like was the way Ralph went about inviting him to stay for two weeks without talking to them about it first. He practically put his parents in a position in which they couldn't say no, and sprung it on them in front of Jack without warning. Of course, Jeffery had no issue with it. He was never as cautious and suspecting as Laurie was. He embraced anyone who may or may not have needed it without question. She wasn't sure exactly why her husband agreed so quickly, joining Ralph in putting her alone in the awkward position where she couldn't say no. Sometimes, she thought Ralph was too much like her husband, but he too argued that the boy could be paranoid and stuck on the rules, like her. And they were both right.
Nothing could've prepared Laurie for the day her husband called to tell her that Ralph's plane went missing over the ocean. The pain and horror struck her like her brother's death had; unexpectedly, making it hard for her to breathe. Although, Ralph's absence turned out to be a far more traumatic experience. Everyday for nearly five months straight felt like waking up to the news that her brother was dead. Finding out Jackson was dead was a one-day event. But everyday that Ralph was still missing was like experiencing a death like that over and over again, every single, terrible day until it was over.
There might not have been a mother on earth more overprotective of her child than Laurie Langley. She knew him inside and out, and could've read him with her eyes closed if need be. The first day she saw him after the island, for the first time in nearly five months, was no different. She felt Ralph cower behind her when Jack approached them, and in spite of Jeffery's insistence that Ralph was no more traumatized or afraid than the other boys, Laurie knew better. She knew Ralph, and whether her husband would believe it or not, she knew that something was wrong.
Laurie was troubled by Ralph's behavior after the fact. His eating habits, his unwillingness to sleep in his bed, his desire to stay home instead of going back to school, even the subtle changes in his anxiety and behavioral patterns others may not have noticed. It broke Laurie's heart to watch him suffer, struggling to adapt to the world again after enduring a traumatic experience that couldn't be compared to any other. She was mentally kicking herself for not being able to protect him from it. She hated that in spite of a parent's best effort, there would always be things that they just couldn't protect their children from, things out of their control that they weren't anticipating. Jackson's drug addiction was one of those things, as was the plane crash and the island.
Laurie compared the two incidents and decided that all she could do was be happy that Ralph was alive. Because like Jackson and the several other boys who were in the plane, Ralph could've very easily not survived. She was lucky, she reminded herself, luckier than her own parents and those of the boys who lost their lives to the plane crash and island.
Laurie's reluctance about Jack Merridew wasn't out of cruelty or a lack of empathy for the boy. Jeffery had to know that, even if he didn't understand it. Laurie's hesitation was less about Jack and more about Ralph. She couldn't explain the sense she had about the boys' relationship post-island. She could tell that something was wrong, even though Ralph was clearly not going to admit it. Laurie simply wanted to protect her son the way she couldn't for five months while he was on the island. She couldn't protect him out there, but she could now. She didn't understand why Jeffery seemed to be more concerned about Jack than Ralph. She knew she didn't see the world through her husbands eyes, just as he couldn't see it through hers. Her own childhood had made her who she was, had instilled the overprotective mother in her. But it was Jeffery's childhood too that made him who he was, had instilled in him whatever it was that told him that Jack's wellbeing was no less important than Ralph's.
Child abuse wasn't something that Laurie experienced or understood. She never had a friend in her youth who endured it, at least not that she knew of. She never bore witness to anything like it. She couldn't grasp what it looked like in reality, only in the movies and on TV. It was never real to her, not even after hearing Jeffery's story. His story was just that; a story, one she hadn't been apart of. It wasn't until she was forced to look at the bruising on Jack Merridew's little body, to see firsthand with her own eyes how real it could be that she finally understood what her husband had always been talking about.
Laurie finally realized that Jack's safety was as important as Ralph's; that the reason her husband jumped to his aid so quickly was because Jack didn't have the security of a family like theirs. Wherever Jack was going home to, it wasn't really a home; at least, not a safe one. She finally understood why it was important that they be there for him simply because they can. It might not have been their job to do so, and it was true that they had their hands full with Ralph and his recovery. But it wasn't about a job, or an obligation, but the fact that another parent wasn't doing theirs. It wasn't Jack's fault, Laurie realized, and she decided to make sure that Jack knew it. It quickly became clear to her that he didn't.
Laurie would've continued to grow more reluctant about helping Jack if Ralph was more openly opposed to it. But like her husband, Ralph's primary concern seemed to be Jack's wellbeing. Laurie felt guilty for being the only one who was putting Ralph before Jack in spite of the fact that the latter clearly needed it more. Her husband and son were both good at that; at making her feel like the bad guy for not trying to emphasize with the pain of the real bad guy. But she came to realize that perhaps Jack wasn't a bad guy, just an unfortunate kid who'd been dealt a raw deal. She thought back to Jackson, lying and asking her to cover for him back in the day, and realized that he wasn't a bad kid either, but like Jack Merridew, a victim of a misfortune beyond his control.
Laurie surrendered to the fact that Jack was a victim too. Maybe not of whatever had made Ralph so afraid of him after the rescue, but of something else entirely.
But still, Laurie couldn't help but worry about Ralph. She knew that there was a lot he wasn't telling her, and that a consequence of accepting Jack could be that Ralph might never tell them what really happened on the island. Perhaps, Laurie thought, she just might have to learn how to live with not knowing. Perhaps, having Ralph here and alive would have to be enough for her. And after five agonizing months of not knowing if that would happen, Laurie was willing to take it and run with it, even if it meant sacrificing the truth Ralph hid.
Laurie had always believed that did her best with Ralph, that she did everything she could to make him comfortable and build trust with him. It wasn't until the day she accidentally stumbled upon the truth about Jack and Ralph's relationship that she considered she might've failed her son somehow. She was heartbroken that Ralph didn't feel comfortable telling her and Jeffery the truth. She wondered what she did or didn't do that made him feel like he and Jack had to hide from them. But this wasn't about her and Jeffery, she soon realized, it was about the boys. And clearly, Ralph had been bottling up a lot, and all that mattered was that he knew didn't have to anymore.
Laurie couldn't help but worry about Ralph when he was with Jack. She knew that Ralph had friends who were better influences, whose parents had values that resembled hers and Jeffery's. She made friends with both Simon's and the twins' parents during the boys' time at the academy, even though the distance meant she didn't see them very often. But she would've trusted either Rachel Bennett or Kelly Brooks with her own child's life. She couldn't say the same thing about Evan Merridew.
Of course, Laurie also worried about Jack. She wanted him to feel safe in her house because she knew he didn't have that privilege in his own. She knew that her own son worried sick about the boy on a regular basis, struggling to keep himself from thinking about whether or not Jack was okay when he was in Dalton. Laurie could see how much Ralph loved Jack, that he would've taken on the abuse himself to prevent Jack from enduring it if he could. She admired her son for it, respected him for it, knowing damn well that her own heart wasn't as big as his.
She hated the fact that her son's involvement with Jack meant that he'd be faced with the reality of child abuse, forced to witness the aftermath, to grasp the consequences of it with his very own eyes. She went the entirety of her own childhood without watching an adult lay their hands on a child. She planned on ensuring that Ralph wouldn't either, but that plan unfortunately fell apart at the seams. Ralph saw the bruising on Jack's face the first day he and Paige came to the house after the island. And surely, now that Laurie knew they were in a romantic relationship, Ralph most likely saw the products of Evan Merridew's abuse on other parts of Jack's body too. That, and Jack also would probably tell Ralph more than he'd be willing to tell her or Jeffery.
Laurie and Jeffery both were forced to watch Ralph suffer the consequences of Evan's abuse the day they drove to the hospital in Dalton after talking with Paige on the phone. Jack had dislocated major joints, and a deep incision on his head. They knew they couldn't keep Ralph from seeing it, from playing his part in helping Jack physically recover, in the emotional turmoil of the aftermath.
Jeffery came to Laurie after talking with Jack and explained to her that Jack lied to social services to keep them from revoking Evan's custody, and Evan surely backed up his son's lie. She thought back to Jeffery's story, his own horrific experience in foster care that did him more harm than good. She knew the likelihood that Jack would be sent to an unstable home, perhaps more abusive than his own, one where he couldn't rely on Paige to get him to a hospital, or to call the Langleys, one he couldn't walk out the door of when he needed to. Laurie agreed that calling social services back to fight against the lie Jack and Evan had told wasn't the best move.
"But we can't just let him go back there" Laurie whispered in the waiting room of the hospital, out of earshot of the others in the room, including Paige and Evan on the other side of it.
"I don't know that we have any other choice if we're not going to file our own report" Jeffery countered. He was frustrated by the painful reality of the situation, and his wife could clearly see it.
"Not unless we can get Evan to agree to let Jack stay at our house until things cool off. He's already going to be mad at Paige as it is, we don't need to throw Jack in the mix of that, knowing that he's going to take the brunt of the damage for what his sister did" Laurie pointed out.
"You wanna talk to Evan then? I'm not sure I can have another civil conversation with the man, not after seeing what he did to Jack" Jeffery requested.
"I'll see what I can do" Laurie agreed, knowing damn well that her husband was capable of punching someone's lights out if they really deserved it. Child abusers were certainly on the list of those who did.
Laurie was surprised by how willing Evan was to surrender his injured child to the Langleys. He seemed to want the space from Jack, and had little to no emotional reaction to even being in the hospital knowing his son was back there. He acted like taking care of Jack's injuries in the aftermath was a chore, one he was more than willing to let Jeffery and Laurie deal with. He was careful not to confess to injuring Jack, but admitted that the two weren't in agreement about Jack's prospective attendance at the academy's upcoming commemoration. After arguing with Laurie for a couple minutes, he finally agreed to let them decide whether or not Jack was to attend.
"I hope you can see that not going doesn't just reflect on him, it reflects on the rest of 'is family too. He ain't gonna get far in life with that level of disrespect he's showing" Evan informed Laurie in a low, flat tone of voice.
"He's a kid, Evan. It isn't about disrespect, it's about what he and those boys went through out on that island. I know what I'm talking about because my boy was out there too" Laurie couldn't resist the urge to respond, "I wouldn't make Ralph go if he really didn't want to. They're grieving."
"But Ralph is going, ain't he?" Evan forced her to admit. Laurie couldn't bring herself to answer.
"My point exactly" Evan answered for her, pulling his cell out of his back pocket. "Gimme a call on the seventh and we'll talk about what's next" he finished as he abandoned Laurie in the hallway.
Laurie managed to get past whatever it was that made her hesitant about Jack. With time, she eventually realized that whatever degree of immorality Jack had inside him, it wasn't really his fault. She considered the fact that Jack hadn't the tools to be anything better than he was. And as far as she could see, Jack wasn't all that bad. He continued to look out for Ralph, to care for him, and make him happy. Laurie trusted Jack with her boy now, even if that hadn't always been the case.
It wasn't until the boys' breakup that Laurie began to doubt the faith she put in Jack. She saw how broken up Ralph was over it, how pained and confused he was. It was hard for Laurie not to blame Jack, not to be angry with him in his absence from their lives. She had to emphasize with what he went through with his mom showing up, but that didn't mean she couldn't be angry at him for allowing Ralph to become collateral damage. She was surprised by it all simply because she'd spent so long watching Jack and Ralph care for each other at any and everyone else's expense if need be, even their own. Like Ralph, Laurie too was confused by why Jack gave up on Ralph so suddenly. She resented Jack for the effect the breakup was having on her boy, even though she knew that Jack couldn't control Ralph's response to it. But Laurie had nobody else to blame, so she blamed Jack anyway. She couldn't blame Ralph for his own behavior, even though deep down she was as frustrated with him as she was empathetic. It was hard to watch him shut down and be rude to her and Jeffery. It just wasn't him, and Laurie hated the fact that she was powerless to understand him, let alone help him.
After the boys finally reunited, Jeffery continuously had to remind Laurie that their reunion was more important than their breakup. Of course he too was angry that it hit Ralph so hard, but no good was going to come of shaming Jack for it now. Laurie knew he was right, and also that Ralph wouldn't appreciate the insinuation either. Ralph protected Jack even right after the breakup, lied to the police for him in his spite of the heartache Jack was causing him. Certainly, if Laurie outwardly blamed Jack for it now, Ralph would protect Jack from her if she were to put him in that position. The last thing she needed was make her son feel like he had to choose between her and Jack. As much as she hated to admit it, he would certainly chose Jack without so much as a single thought.
In spite of the intensity of the breakup, Laurie watched the boys so quickly fall back into the steps of their former relationship. They were as in love and obsessive as they'd ever been, like none of it ever happened at all. Perhaps that was the beauty in youth and childhood romance; the love was simply more important than the pain it may cause. They could get over it like children in a kindergarten class who'd forget that they were mad at each other the previous day. Laurie was secretly jealous of them, recalling her own disastrous high school relationships. None of them had been nearly as deep as Jack's and Ralph's. None of her old boyfriends cared half as much about her as Jack and Ralph did about each other. She'd never known any boys like them when she was their age.
Although, Laurie realized that she never survived a deep, chronic trauma like Jack and Ralph did back in military school; on the island. Laurie realized that some of the depth of their relationship must've come from the shared experience; one that nobody else they'd ever date would ever understand. They'd survived something surreal together, regardless of how it had played out on the island. Laurie also knew that they were close before the island, and enduring something like that would've naturally strengthened their connection to each other and to the island in a way that wouldn't have been possible with an outsider. Perhaps, she never had that kind of relationship because all her relationships lacked that trauma bonding Jack and Ralph had in theirs.
Or maybe, Laurie had just dated a bunch of douchebags. That, or Jack and Ralph simply got lucky. Though as the island loomed at the front of Laurie's mind, lucky wasn't a word that felt right in describing them.
Laurie and Jack showed up at the commemoration ceremony late. She was surprised by Jack's unexpected last-minute change of heart, but was more than happy to bring him at his request to be there for Ralph. And she was incredibly glad that she was there after Eric Brooks came running up to her after dinner to inform her that Ralph was hyperventilating on the bathroom floor of the dorm room. Of course, Jack was there, as was a nurse and Eric's brother. By the time she got Ralph out of there, a crowd had drawn around the door. She was bothered by the attention, and hoped that people hadn't figured out that Ralph was one of the survivors of the tragedy they were all there to remember.
Ralph then brought her to the memorial display in the assembly hall. The two sat near the back so they could talk without disturbing the other mourners who were looming over the photos at the front of the room. Everything started to make more sense to Laurie when Ralph finally confessed to her that he'd been suppressing a lot about what he endured on the island. She told him about how hungry he was all the time, but the constant access to all kinds of foods at home was overwhelming. His body was constantly begging for him to eat everything in sight, but he was equally as nauseous by the sight of it. He couldn't stomach anything he used to like; his body was so unadjusted to it and he had no idea how to make it better. It was so daunting, he decided it was easier just to eat what little he could stomach; fruit and small amounts of meat like he ate on the island. He confessed to having witnessed Simon's death and the guilt he felt about his glowstick and not trying to stop the others knowing what he knew. He also told his mom about Piggy's death, and how close the two had become in the short time leading up to it. Ralph admitted that he was confused about why he was lucky enough to survivor but so many weren't. He admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the things other people considered to be normal, to the fact that he missed the island at first simply because got used to being there, even though he spent the whole time dreaming of home. He admitted to the heartache he experienced on a nightly basis, tortured by thoughts of her and his father not knowing if he was even alive. He didn't explain everything, Laurie knew, but she was relieved that Ralph was finally talking about it. Perhaps it was the first step of many he'd make in his emotional recovery, and eventually he'd open up to them about the rest of it.
But now, as Laurie held her boy in her arms and stared up at the memorials of the boys who didn't survive it, she realized that she was incredibly lucky just to be here with him. It could've easily been him up there in a black and white photograph, being memorialized and talked about in past tense. He could've easily not made it to thirteen years old, but instead he had his whole life ahead of him. Laurie was glad that she was here too, realizing that it just might've been as crucial for her mental health as it was for Ralph's. Laurie decided to let go of the confusion, the hesitancy, and her need to know everything. Instead, she decided to simply be happy that Ralph was here beside her instead of in a photograph on the stage.
Laurie glanced across the room and saw Rachel Bennett standing near the photo of sweet Simon, realizing how real it was for her, that she would never hold her son in her arms again. Laurie squeezed Ralph's hand as tears formed in her eyes. Ralph glanced over at her, worry in his own sparkling brown eyes.
"Mom, are you okay?" Ralph asked gently, squeezing her hand between his fingers.
"Yes" Laurie turned to him, smiling widely at him as she took him in, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm okay because you're right here." Ralph scooted in closer to her and wrapped his hand around her arm closest to him, leaning his head down on her shoulder. He too knew that he was lucky to be here, that every hug he ever shared with his mother was a gift that not every child and parent in this room, alive or pictured, would ever receive again.