Changes on the Doorstep
Sonny Corinthos and Kate Howard are happy newlyweds, and Kate had just gotten used to the fact that she is a stepmother to Michael, Morgan, and Kristina. Her life takes another turn when Rhiannon Star arrives on the Corinthos's doorstep. I do not own General Hospital or any of its characters. I only own Rhiannon and any other minor characters that show up throughout the story. Note: Chapters 1-3 have been rewritten!!!
Chapter 1
It was just another normal, summer, Saturday morning. Well, normal in the way Port Charles would describe it. However, in the new and improved Corinthos household, it was definitely not another "Port Charles" morning. It was a calm and peaceful one. Being the weekend, Sonny Corinthos had the days off, and took advantage of it by sleeping late, something he would never be able to do during the weekdays.
There was something different when he woke up. This was something he experienced for the past month so far. Before then, he would never be smelling fresh coffee or bacon still frying on the pan. He used to live alone, unless his sons Michael and Morgan were there, and neither of them could cook; they would just burn the house down. No, it was his new wife Kate Howard, who he had married a month previously. He still had to get used to the fact that there was someone else in the household now, and every weekend he would walk downstairs and be greeted with a cup of coffee and a perfect breakfast, made by his perfect new wife.
Smiling to himself, Sonny lazily rose out of bed and slipped on a pair of jeans and a crisp black shirt. After combing through his messy, black hair and putting in a little of the usual gel, he walked downstairs and made his way into the kitchen, where, as he expected, a mug was thrust into his left hand and a kiss was pecked on his cheek.
"Morning honey!" Kate said, her cheeks flushing with joy. Sonny had never seen her this happy since they were teenagers living in Bensonhurst, back when she was Connie Falconeri, and they were the traditional boyfriend and girlfriend. After she had stood him up when they were supposed to run away together, he had never seen her again until she came to town and borrowed his phone. By then, she had since changed her name to Kate Howard, and was now a powerful editor-in-chief for a famous fashion magazine. She tried to hide her feelings at first, but finally decided that she didn't care what people thought of her marrying a mobster. She used to live in the house next door to Sonny, but had moved into his house.
"Hey," Sonny crooned, taking a seat at the table with Kate sitting across from him. "Bacon again, I see," he continued with a smile. He raised his eyebrows as he watched Kate pile several strips of bacon and two fried eggs on her plate and started shoveling through them with a fork. Being a fashion editor, Kate had made it very clear over the past few months that she had to watch her weight and appearance, but ever since the marriage, she had started to eat more, and cared less about her looks when she was in the house or went for a simple stroll around town. This morning, for instance, she was wearing a simple pair of faded jeans and a white tank top, and her short hair was merely combed through; nothing fancy. Not that Sonny minded the change. He liked her a lot better this way.
Kate noticed him staring at her and put down her fork. "What?" she asked innocently.
Sonny raised his hands in surrender and grinned. "Nothing, nothing!" he insisted. "I just like to see you eat for a change."
Kate rolled her eyes and laughed. "Well, your sons have taught me that chasing them around the house is a good way to get basic exercise. And hitting the gym is actually more fun then it looks," she defended. "Speaking of Michael and Morgan, are they here for the weekend?"
"No, Carly has them this weekend. They're coming back here on Tuesday. She, the boys, and Jax went to the shore for a few days," he told her, talking about his ex-wife, Carly Jacks, and her husband, whose real name was Jasper Jacks. He and Carly were still on good terms, and he had learned to get along with Jax. Kate was also making an effort to get along with Carly, for they had ended up as rivals the day they met.
"I see," Kate mused, twirling her fork in her hand. Then her face lit up. "I talked to Alexis yesterday. She said that she was going somewhere for a few hours and wanted us to take Kristina while she was gone." As she expected, Sonny nodded in agreement with a smile on his face. Kristina Davis was his five-year-old daughter with Alexis Davis, and unlike Michael and Morgan, she didn't spend as much time with him as they did, so their time together was precious.
A few months ago, Kate could never see herself raising kids. She thought that she hated them. But as she got to know Michael and Morgan, and Kristina later on, she realized that although they could cause trouble sometimes, they never truly meant it, and were in fact really good kids. She remembered rescuing Morgan from her pond, even though she couldn't swim, and ended up getting a snake bite and got rushed to the hospital. She still had the couple dozen cards the kids had made, each of them with a different but heartfelt apology, and treasured them.
"So is Alexis bringing Kristina over here?" Sonny asked, breaking Kate from her thoughts.
"Oh, um, yeah," Kate answered, jolted back into reality. She glanced at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. "In fact, she should be here now…"
"Oh, she's probably running late," Sonny guessed. "You know Alexis. She could just be getting an ice cream cone and BANG, she'll suddenly be prosecuting a new case or something."
"Ice cream cone?" Kate asked, laughing.
"What?" Sonny said with a shrug. "It was the first thing that came to my mind."
There was a knock on the door. "That must be Alexis," Sonny decided as he rose from the table. He briskly strode from the kitchen into the living room where the front door was, with Kate following a few feet behind. He opened the door, revealing a woman who was not Alexis. His face registered surprise.
"Um, hello," he greeted awkwardly, stepping aside to let the woman in.
"Hello," the woman answered, walking inside. "Are you two Mr. and Mrs. Corinthos?" she asked.
"That would be correct," Sonny replied, a little confused. "Uh, would you like to sit down?"
"Thank you." The woman proceeded to take a seat on the sofa, while Sonny plopped down on one of the couches. Kate remained standing behind him. Sonny took this momentary silence to study the woman. She was smartly dressed, wearing a white blouse with a navy blue overcoat and a matching knee-length skirt. Her dark hair was pulled back into a simple bun, and her face didn't show anything that resembled anger or such. Sonny breathed a sigh of relief. She was probably one of those salespeople that stop by occasionally, and the only thing he would have to worry about was her demanding them to buy something.
The woman took out a clipboard containing several papers and looked at Kate. "Mrs. Corinthos, you have an older sister Isabella, correct?"
Kate was taken aback. "Yes," she answered slowly. "May I ask who you are?"
The woman was shocked. "Oh, I'm sorry. Here I am barging in and asking questions and I don't even introduce myself!" she apologized with a smile. "I'm Anne Garrett from the New England Social Services."
"Social Services?" Kate echoed, clearly perplexed. What did Social Services have to do with her?
"Yes," Anne prompted. "Now, back to the questions. When was the last time you have had contact with your sister?"
Kate was deeply flustered. "Well, probably almost seventeen years ago," she answered quietly.
Anne raised her eyebrows but didn't press on with that particular topic. "I'm sure you know that she and her husband have a daughter?" she asked.
Kate nodded. "Yes…." she said slowly.
"Well, I am sorry to report that your sister and her husband, Anthony Star, have been found murdered in their home in Bensonhurst. Police are investigating this right now as we speak. I'm guessing that nobody has contacted you about it, otherwise you wouldn't be so shocked right now."
Kate nodded, her face ghost white. Sonny was deeply shocked as well. He remembered Izzy. She was a few years older than Kate and was the only person in her family that truly got along with him.
"Their sixteen-year-old daughter, Rhiannon, was out at the time, so thankfully she was spared. Unfortunately, we don't know if the murderer has a grudge against the whole family and wants to find Rhiannon as well, so we are currently holding her in police custody to keep her safe. Mrs. Corinthos, you are the only close living relative she has. Your parents and Anthony's parents have passed away some time ago, and he didn't have any siblings. So we were hoping that you and her husband would be able to take her in?"
"Take her in?" Sonny said. "But that means…"
"We want her to live with you," Anne stated.
"L-live with us?!" Kate repeated, her face stricken with horror. Next to her, Sonny looked like he was clubbed over the head.
"If this is unable to happen, then Rhiannon will be put into foster care," Anne continued. "And I will tell you now, she will react badly to that."
"I doubt she would like living with an estranged aunt any better," Kate blurted out.
Anne sighed. "I know that this is sudden, Mrs. Corinthos, but having Rhiannon live with you would be the right thing. Your records show that this would be a suitable environment, and-"
"Records?" Sonny interrupted. "Suitable environment?"
"Yes," Anne said, sounding slightly confused as she pulled out some papers and began reading them. "Let's see…ah! Yes, it says that you, Mr. Corinthos, have a good-paying job as a coffee importer, and obviously, Mrs. Corinthos, we all know you're the editor at Couture. And you have three children as well. A nice family setting."
Sonny and Kate glanced at each other, and then Kate turned back to Anne. "Ms. Garrett, this is happening way too fast. I'm afraid we can't give you an answer right now. Could you give us a day or two to discuss this?"
"Of course," Anne agreed warmly. "I didn't expect you to have a decision at this moment. Here's my card, and you can call me when you're ready." She gathered her things and stood up to leave the house. As she got to the door, she turned around. "I don't want to put any pressure on you, but this is really hard on Rhiannon. I talked to her about you before I left, and she seemed upset, but I think she would want this much more than foster care." She paused. "But whatever decision suits you, suits me." She then left, leaving Sonny and Kate alone.
As soon as she knew that Anne was gone, Kate stood up and paced the room. "Sonny, what just happened?!" she nearly shouted.
Sonny merely scratched his head. "God, Kate, I don't know, but I do know that this isn't how my day usually starts."
Kate gave him a look. "Very funny," she said. She ran her hands through her hair as she continued pacing. "The news just came so fast. First she says that my sister is dead, and suddenly she wants us to practically adopt her teenage daughter!" She paused. "Oh, and my parents. That's three surprises in five minutes!"
"How estranged were you?" Sonny asked with disbelief.
"Not now, Sonny," Kate sighed as she plopped back down onto the couch. "Right now we have to focus on what we're about to get placed on our laps- Rhiannon."
"Right," Sonny said. "How old did Anne say she was?"
"Mmm, sixteen," Kate answered.
"Yikes," Sonny said. "What an awful age to be in this situation."
"Especially when she's already going through other teenage problems," Kate added.
There was a momentary silence, and then Kate said, "But I don't know if we could take care of her Sonny. We've got our own budding marriage to focus on, and we both know that I've had absolutely no experience with children before Michael, Morgan, and Kristina, and even then that's different, since they're not here everyday and I'm only their stepmother."
"But," Sonny began to argue. "You know what Anne said. She goes into foster care if we don't let her live here. She'll have to live with people that don't know a thing about her and her family. At least we knew her parents."
"You never even really raised a girl before. Kristina is only five and it's not like you spend a lot of time with her," Kate pointed out.
Sonny buried his face in his hands. Kate slid over right next to him and wrapped her arms around him.
"I'm sorry, Sonny. I had to point that out," Kate apologized.
"No, I'm not worried about that," Sonny stated, lifting his head up again. "I just don't understand why you're so hell-bent on refusing to let Rhiannon live here." He looked deeply into Kate's eyes. "Does it have to do with separating yourself from your family?"
Kate just looked away from him. "I don't want to talk about it. At least not now," she said quietly.
"Fine," Sonny relented. "But if that's what it is, that shouldn't have to do with Rhiannon."
"What about the mob?" Kate asked, completely throwing Sonny off. He didn't even consider his influence in the mob a problem. "Sonny, your enemies always go after your family in some way, and with Anthony Zacharra and his crew here, it's even more dangerous. I can't believe Ms. Garrett had no idea about it."
"Rhiannon is old enough to defend herself a lot more easily," Sonny defended.
"Are you saying that she'll definitely get attacked?!" Kate exclaimed.
"No, no, I didn't mean it like that!" Sonny insisted. "I'm just trying to make life in the mafia sound a lot easier. Who knows, she could like the adventure."
"This is hopeless," Kate sighed. "Forget it. You win, Sonny. We'll take her."
"W-what?" Sonny said, feeling slightly disappointed that he had gotten his way so quickly. "You mean it?"
"I do," Kate said.
"But sweetheart," Sonny said. "Do you want to, or are you just doing this for me?"
Kate looked up into his deep dark eyes. "Both, in a way. It's more for you, but I do want to, kind of, as an apology of some sort to my family, especially Izzy. I know that I'll accept and love Rhiannon's presence in the house. I think I'll just need a few days. This is all a big shock, you know?"
Sonny was surprised to see tears fill up her light brown eyes.
"Izzy…and-and Tony…murdered?" Kate stuttered, her face turning back into a ghostly pale color. She let herself fall into Sonny's open arms.
"It's okay," Sonny said, saddened himself. He had only met Tony a few times, but didn't remember him that well. Izzy was like an older version of Kate, but with lighter hair, hazel eyes instead of the soft brown that Kate had, and a little taller. She was also like an older sister to Sonny. They got along so well, always joking and talking about simple things. He hadn't seen Izzy since he left Bensonhurst, before Rhiannon was born.
"Little Rhiannon," Kate said with a slight smile, pulling herself out of the embrace and wiping her eyes. "She was just a little baby when I left. I wonder what she looks like now." Tears suddenly threatened to pour out of her eyes again.
"I'll tell you what," Sonny said hastily. "When Kristina gets here we can talk to her about this and we'll call Michael and Morgan and talk to them about it. I'm sure Kristina and Morgan could care less at their age, and would be excited about a cousin coming here, but Michael might feel threatened about someone a little older living here and probably spending more time with me." Kate rested her head on his shoulder and he stroked her hair as he lowered his voice to a whisper. "After that's done, we'll go out with Kristina and take her shopping and we could go out to eat somewhere. We'll just clear our heads and forget about all this for a little while, okay? "
"Okay," Kate whispered back. Then the doorbell rang, and Sonny went up to get it, leaving Kate in her own thoughts.
A/N: This used to be the Prologue, but I decided to just make it Chapter 1. It's not that different, but when I was rereading the original, I was like, "Wait, I highly doubt it would take Sonny and Kate ten seconds to make a life-changing decision." Maybe it still was quick in the revised version, but it's a little more realistic.