A.N.: Ok, I started playing around with this when Sonny told Reese that Michael was the only one of his kids who would remember him well enough to miss him. The song is Reba McIntire's "He gets that from me."

The premise: Jason came back too late. Sonny and Reese were killed by Ruiz and his men. With proper medical treatment, Carly got better and is now raising her kids on her own. These are her thoughts as she looks at Michael.

Carly watches her son and remembers the love of her life.

His early mornin' attitude
You have to drag him out of bed
Only frosted flakes will do
He gets that from me
Yeah, he gets that from me

"Michael! You're going to be late for school now get moving," Carly called impatiently up the stairs for her older son. Morgan was already strapped into his high chair with a bowl of cereal in front of him. If Michael didn't hurry up he wouldn't have time for breakfast before they had to leave. She poured him a bowl of his favorite cereal but left off the milk - he wouldn't eat it once it got soggy so she never added the milk until he got to the table.

Carly looked across the table at her boys and fought off a sudden wave of tears. If Sonny were here there would be no sugary cereals for breakfast. She could almost hear him lecturing her, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Carly." "Why do you want to put junk like that into your body, Carly?" Then he would let her watch while he whipped up an omelet or whole wheat pancakes.

She forced a smile as Michael ran down the stairs and slid into his chair. "Eat up, Michael, we're already running late," she admonished pouring him a glass of orange juice and she setting both bowl and glass in front of him. She brought over the milk jug so he could pour it himself and then turned back to the counter to wipe down the sink while she waited for him to eat.

His curly hair and his knobby knees
The way the sun brings those freckles out
Talk and talk never miss a beat
Yeah, he gets that from me
He gets that from me

Despite his protests Carly checked Michael's seat belt once she was done strapping Morgan into his car seat. Closing that door, she slid into the driver's seat and started the car. One benefit of Carly's stay at Rose Lawn was the fact that she had finally confronted and overcome her fear of driving. After Sonny's death, when Carly found herself sole caregiver of two young children, she realized that she couldn't afford to be dependent on others for transportation. Now she was able to pick her son up from school herself, and she enjoyed it.

Carly glanced at Michael in the rearview mirror and realized that she had no idea what he was talking about. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't been paying attention to his rambling account of his day. He invariably told her every detail: what he had learned, with whom he had played, what he'd eaten for lunch. Anything and everything needed to be shared. It was refreshing after all those years of trying to drag even the slightest conversation from Sonny. Thankfully the boys who were now the center of her universe inherited at least that from her. Of course, now she was starting to understand why Sonny sometimes complained that her chatter gave him a headache. Even her patience had its limits.

She nodded and murmured an acknowledgement to whatever Michael was saying, hoping that she hadn't just agreed to letting him get his tongue pierced or something.

He looks at me with those big brown eyes
He's got me in the palm of his hands
And I swear sometimes
It's just like you're here again
He smiles that little crooked smile
There's no denying he's your child
Without him I don't know what I'd do
He gets that from you
Oh, he gets that from you

Carly settled down on the couch in front of the fire. She had just put Morgan to bed and Michael was playing up in his room. She smiled remembering his claim that he would be 'finishing his homework.' She knew better than that, knew she never should have allowed him to hook up video games in his bedroom, but she just had such a hard time saying no to him. Carly glanced at her watch, fifteen minutes before she needed to go upstairs and remind him to brush his teeth and get to bed. Worn out from the day, tired and missing Sonny, she decided to just relax for fifteen minutes rather than using them to pick up the toys Morgan had left scattered around the room. She had just closed her eyes when she heard a soft voice beside her, "Mom? Can I sit with you for awhile?"

She opened her eyes and looked at her boy, "Of course you can, sweetheart, always." As Michael sat down next to her and curled into her side, she brushed the hair off his forehead and smiled down at him. Moments like these were few and far between these days, Michael was really too old to cuddle. Since his father's death, however, he always seemed to know when she needed this. He would come to her and just sit pretending not to notice her tears, but making everything better just by being there. Carly wrapped an arm around him and squeezed his shoulder. "I love you, baby."

How he loves your old guitar
Yeah, he's taught himself to play
He melts my heart
Tells me he love me every day
And cracks jokes at the perfect time
Makes me laugh when I want to cry
That boy is everything to me
He gets that from you
He gets that from you

"I love you too, Mom," he answered.

After a moment Michael looked up and gave his mother a mischievous smile. "So since you love me so much, and I'm such a great kid and all, do you think that we could get a dog?"

Carly's impending tears at the sappy moment were choked off by her laughter, "A dog?" she sputtered. "No, we can't get a dog." She started to tickle him. "You are such a little con-artist. You think you can manipulate me into getting a dog. Uh-uh, Mr. Man, I ain't buyin' it." Hearing him shriek with laughter warmed her heart.

Carly was still laughing as she pulled him up off the couch and sent him upstairs to bed. "I was just asking," he protested with a grin as he started up the stairs.

"I'll be up in a few minutes to see that the lights are really out Michael," she called after him, smiling as she heard his grumble.

Carly looked into the dancing flames and whispered "Oh, Sonny, how did we end up with such a great kid? I know that it wasn't anything I did."

Last night I heard him pray
Lord, help me and mama make it through
And tell daddy we'll be okay
He said he sure misses you
He sure misses you
He really misses you
He gets that from me

Carly walked up the stairs a few minutes later to make sure that Michael had really gone to bed. She paused at his door when she saw him kneeling by the side of his bed. Carly had never been devout, Catholicism was really more Sonny's thing than hers. Because she knew Sonny would have wanted it she still made her boys go to mass every Sunday, but she had long since stopped checking to see that Michael said his prayers every night. Seeing him kneeling there she resolved to start teaching Morgan the words "Now I lay me down to sleep."

Then Carly heard Michael's words:

"God bless, Mom and Morgan and Kristina and Uncle Jason and Aunt Courtney and Aunt Emily. And please, God, I know that Daddy's in heaven with you so tell him not to worry about us. Mom and I are taking care of each other and Morgan, so we'll be okay. But tell him that we haven't forgotten about him and we still love him and miss him. Amen."

Carly hid in the shadows outside his door as she watched Michael climb into bed and turn off the lamp on his bedside table, leaving the room only dimly lit by the night light in the opposite corner. A moment later she walked casually into the room and bent over to kiss him on the forehead. "Goodnight, Mr. Man. I love you."

"Goodnight, Mom. Love you, too," he whispered.

Carly retreated down the hall to her own room and her big empty bed. As she had done every night since moving in to the house that she had never shared with Sonny, Carly changed into one of Sonny's shirts, she curled up with his pillow and imagined his arms around her. Wishing that the smell of his shampoo or aftershave might still linger there, Carly released the tears that she had held back all day. "Goodnight, Sonny. I love you," she wept.