In the mid-1970s, Dr. Lesley Williams discovered that the daughter that she believed had died — stop us if you’ve heard this one before — hadn’t. But rather than entirely traumatize the tween with a custody battle, she left Laura with her adoptive family, the Vinings, only to wind up rescuing her from a cult a few years later with beau Rick Webber.
After moving in with Lesley, Laura fell — and we mean hard — for law student Scotty Baldwin. But understandably concerned about her age — she was sweet and all but just 16 — he gave her the heave-ho. (That’s law school 101: Avoid underage girls.) Finally, as she hit the ripe old age of 17, she got Scotty to slide an engagement ring on her finger — and soon after had to take a job at the Campus Disco to keep him in textbooks!
Though Bobbie Spencer’s brother, Luke, wasn’t able to keep Laura from marrying Scotty as the hooker-turned-nurse had hoped, he did become hopelessly attracted to her — to the point that, fearing he was living through his last night on earth, he forced himself on her to the tune of Herb Alpert’s “Rise.” Somehow, they still fell in love, and we nonetheless still like that song.
After helping WSB agent Robert Scorpio keep the nefarious Cassadines from putting Port Charles — and potentially the world — on ice, Laura made Luke her husband. But before the newlyweds had even eaten all of their leftover wedding cake, the up-and-coming supermodel was abducted by stalkeriffic Stavros Cassadine and told that surprise — she was a widow. (As if; Luke will outlive us all!)
Not long after Laura made her way back to Port Charles, she and Luke decided to get the heck outta Dodge. But by 1993, the idyllic new life that they’d created at the Triple L Diner in Canada was in danger, once again owing to Frank Smith, the mobster who’d long thought that Luke’s number should be up. So back to their old stomping grounds the couple went, with son Lucky in tow.
In 1996, Laura was forced to admit to Luke that while a captive of the Cassadines, she’d born Stavros a son, Nikolas. Which was, in a way, good, because they really needed his bone marrow to save ailing daughter Lulu. It was also, in a way, bad, because it brought to light her feelings for Stavros’ brother, Stefan, who insisted on calling her Lasha. It was, in short, a hot mess.
Recalling that she’d killed Rick’s mistress — and Rick, too? Wait, what?!? — Laura understandably slipped into a catatonic state from which she didn’t emerge until the 25th anniversary of her wedding to Luke. At that point, she awakened just long enough to remarry her ex despite his subsequent union with Tracy Quartermaine.
In 2014, Laura was kinda-sorta relieved to hear how over her a defrosted Stavros was — who wouldn’t have been? — until she learned that the woman to whom he referred as “my new princess” was her daughter, Lulu. Grosser still, he intended to impregnate the young woman and, mad as he was, probably would’ve, too, had her true love, Dante Falconeri, not re-killed the nutjob before he could. (Of note, no one involved was as happy about any of this as this picture might make it appear they were; it was icky. So icky.)
In 2015, Laura pretended to have reunited with Luke — no big stretch of the imagination needed there! — so that they could try to bring down mobster Frank Smith once and for all. Before the dust settled, they ran afoul of both the mafioso’s daughter (Luke’s ex) and Holly Sutton (also Luke’s ex). What? Dude had a lotta exes!
Trying to figure out the meaning of the bequeathment left to her by nemesis Helena Cassadine, Laura wound up finding something far sweeter than buried treasure — true love, with Kevin Collins. If only he didn’t have that alive-and-kicking homicidal-maniac twin brother that he’d kept a secret from her for the entirety of their relationship…
Another day, another Cassadine! Laura was none too pleased by Victor’s return. But at least trying to figure out exactly what kind of threat he posed to Spencer and their family distracted her from the shocking news that Tracy packed for her 2022 visit: Luke had (gasp) died.
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