Every Rose Has It's Thorns
Summary: Sequel to indestructable. Johnny realizes what the truth Sonny tells him means.
A/N: I'm going to write one more sequel to this Claudia collection. That one with Josslyn realizing what had happened to Claudia.
Johnny doesn't know how long he stands there long after Sonny is gone, dna test in his hands. The names of his parents written in black and white. He chokes on his tears as the memory of Claudia's death hit him once more. She wasn't his sister, then. But his mother. And that realization brought on a whole other kind of pain at what he'd lost. He felt as if he couldn't breathe.
Claudia hadn't been perfect, but she'd loved him and he her. She'd always cared for him and had always protected him and in the end, he'd been unable to protect her.
If this test was real, no one had protected her and her father and the man he'd believed to be his father had let grown men...monsters take advantage of her.
Johnny falls to the ground and leans his head against the wall as the tears stream down his face. He can't stop them. He remembers Claudia's smile, the way she hugged him. How she'd smile as he'd play piano for her. How she'd run her hands through his hair. And as he connects those pieces, he wonders how it is that he didn't realize long before now that Claudia was more than a sister.
He stares at his father's name on the test and snarls at the thought of him. He wishes the man were still alive so he could rip him from limb to limb and make him suffer for what he did to Claudia. He wishes he could do the same to his father and every other man who'd hurt his mother. With shaky hands he drops the paper and heads over to get a drink, making a promise to visit his mother's grave tomorrow. He'd bring her a bouquet of colorful wildflowers, something he knew she secretly loved and he would tell her how much he loved her and how much more he understood her now.
The End