Title: Truth Revealed
Chapter 1
Sonny continued to tap the end of his pen against the bureau, the latest figures and contracts for Titan strewn across it, yet the CEO could only think about one thing …. The husband he thought he had lost forever, who was now very much alive and had destroyed the one idea Sonny had of a perfect life by handing divorce papers.
Sonny sighed deeply processing the conversation with his Dad regarding the paperwork having gone through fine and that was that, Will was now free to do what Sonny felt like was the worst act, Will wanting to pursue a relationship with Paul, the man he originally had an affair with during his marriage to Sonny. Sonny dropped his pen and went to the liquor cabinet and poured a whiskey, it had been a while since he thought he needed a drink, but a day like this was one of them.
Sonny slumped into the sofa, glass in hand and swirled the ball of ice, clinking the edges occasionally and began to talk to himself out loud;
"Where did I go wrong? Why would the one miracle I dreamed about for so long turn into this nightmare? Am I jinxed? Of all the people why must it be Paul?" Sonny heard a cough in the doorway and there stood his mother Adrienne who had observed the monologue.
"Mom, please don't, whatever you are going to say, I can't hand it right now."
"Baby, I know I am not Will's biggest fan, more so when he hurt you so much last time. But I warned you when we found him in Memphis…"
Sonny interrupted her "Mom, I just said not to and yet you continue" Sonny rose from the sofa and refilled his glass and sat back at the bureau "If you are going to berate and give me the I told you so speech, then I'm busy with Titan business and you need to leave!" his voice raised and quivered.
"Jackson please, I will only say one more thing on the subject and be done, do you forget you were engaged to Paul, as well you love Paul and was ready to settle with him. You dropped him so fast when Will returned, do you think that was sensible or a reckless move?"
Sony's eyebrows raised and he turned in his chair to glare at his mother, he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, deep down he knew she was right, but how could he convey that it had always been Will that he wanted and loved. Rekindling the relationship with Paul was just a form of security, knowing he could never have Will so why not Paul. Sonny turned back to the work and put his head in his hands and whispered "Mom?"
Adrienne knew what she had said would hurt her son, but there was a time to coddle him and this was not it, she walked to the back of the chair and put her hands on his shoulder and lay a kiss into his brown tousled hair "I know baby, you have to start over, you need to start over, if not you will hurt more people and yourself in the process, don't forget you have Ari to think of, with everything going on with Gabi, she needs you most." Adrienne squeezed a little harder against Sonny's shoulders and left him alone, to really think about what was she had said and what was he going to do next.
Across Salem down another floor of the DiMera mausoleum, an unconscious Will Horton lay lifelessly with Paul Narita also unconscious to his side. The feeling of the cold marble floor against Paul's body pressed him to wake and his eyes fluttered open to see where he was.
Fuzziness clouded his mind as he looked around at his surroundings in the barely lit room, with eyes now straining he tries to move his hands to right himself up, yet he is restricted and unable to bring them in front of himself. He takes a few breaths, plants his hands on the floor and pushes himself up. Paul now feels the bindings holding his hands and the same restriction at his ankles. He raises his bottom and swings his arms underneath his legs and feet. He clumsily pulls at the bindings at his ankles which weren't tied very well and freed his ankles with ease, his wrists unfortunately was a different matter.
He stands up and with outstretches his arms until he felt a wall. He walks sliding his hands around to find a switch, window or even a door handle with no avail. He turns once more and as he is side-steps, he is kicked in the leg "Owwww god dammit" Paul kneels down and tentatively put his hands out to feel if what kicked him was still there. He feels a shoe, trousers, as he moves along his breathing becomes short "Hello? Who is there? Answer me!?" Paul started.
Paul stops when he feels the arm of the person limply lying there. As the fog in his mind has eased up he started to talk to himself again "Okay, where was I last? What was the last I remember?" He closed his eyes to concentrate and pull back the last image of memory. His eyes fly open and he starts to shake the body "Will, Will, WILL!" he starts to shout louder and louder.
Paul now kneeling with hands moving up from Will's arms to his neck to try and find a pulse, Paul stops and waits, hoping there is a pulse, begging there be a pulse, "Come on Will, come on come on" Paul whispers he stops suddenly, was that it, did he feel something. He shuffled forward a little more and again put his fingers on the pulse point in Will's neck.
"…beat…beat…beat" Paul repeated "Thank god there is a pulse, but it's so weak" Paul tapped Will's cheek a few times, "Will wake up, come on Will, please wake."
Will continues to lie there motionless, except in his mind it was a flurry of images, movements and voices. His mind swam furiously which made Will feel nauseous, which eased when his mind settled on a voice.
"Sorry we are closed" Will is staring at a brown haired man at a counter in a coffee house, the owner looks up and says "Dude, if you're here to cash in your free coffee card that you rustled out of me."
Will feels a familiarity in this conversation, has he had it before, when he looks he recognises the person who he now knows of as Jackson Kiriakis his once husband Will thought, his mouth opens on its own accord like a fixed record in place
"No, no, no, I passed by and saw most of your lights were on, so do you need any help cleaning up or…"
"Yeah sure I mean you can clear the table tops I don't like doing that."
As Sonny handed Will a cloth a familiar warmth spread through him whilst looking at this man's smile, did this happen? Will couldn't fathom what would come next, till the character in his mind spoke again
"So what's up?"
"Oh ummm nothing much, just ran some errands this morning, errrmm you know not try to sleep through my calc lecture, came out to my grandmother, the gym…"
"Wait, what? What did you say?"
"Went to the gym."
"No before that, before that?"
"Yeah, I came out, errr I told my grandmother I'm gay, I guess I'm kinda telling you now, not that it's a big deal."
Are you kidding me, this is a major deal, this is huge."
A pain surged through Will's body and the memory faded, the nausea returned and bile rose not quite reaching its destination.
Paul put his hand against Will's forehead, slight beads of sweat had formed, he was warmer than someone should be, especially lying on a marble floor. Paul struggled with his restraints again trying to loosen or even free himself, they bit deeper into his hands with little movement and he hissed with the pain.
Will let out an audible sigh, which reassured Paul he was still alive, bur for Will he has slipped back into another memory, somewhere new and a very different feeling came over him, "Is that a baby cry?" Will felt uneasy as he tried to open his eyes, except his eyes opened as him in the dream, a hazy vision of someone stood there, again his voice in autopilot spoke.
"Nick?"
Nick steps forward with Ari, "Say hello to your dad."
Will holding Ari in his arms "Hi, Arianna, oh my god, thank you." The memory fuzzes quicker than last time but returns a minute later
"Thank god you got Gabi to the hospital before she was born." Will again saw Sonny and now a blonde haired woman sitting there, ahhh Sami, mom.
"You didn't tell him?" Sami said to Sonny.
"No it's no big deal." Sonny replied and looked at Will and Ari and smiled.
"I'm sorry I disagree with you, it's a very big deal, Will, Sonny delivered your baby."
Will looked confusingly at Sonny whose cheeks redden and so he explains.
"So we knew the ferry wouldn't get there in time and then her water broke?"
"Then you, you took charge?"
Wills body started to feel that same feeling from the last memory, rising from his stomach as he stared at this his man, his Sonny?
"Not really, I coached a little, but believe it or not when a baby is born, the mother does all the work, I did next to nothing."
Will looks at the little bundle in his arms "You are one lucky lady; you had Sonny Kiriakis looking out for you from day one. Oh my god I love you, and I love you." "I love you too." Sonny repeated back to Will.
A cloud covered the memory and it disappeared. Paul had now moved himself and sat his back against the wall and pulled Will's head into his lap, he stroked Will's hair gently, hoping he would wake; his hand froze when he heard a whisper
"I love you too."
A few moments passed and Paul began to stroke Will's hair again.
Will was getting annoyed with himself, where was he, why couldn't he focus, why couldn't he open his eyes. Once again a scene came before him, a hotel room, number 1224, "this was where I was to meet Paul Narita for a story"… his knuckles wrapped on the door a few times, the door flings open and there stands a man, shirtless and droplets of water dripping down his torso
"You aren't room service are you?"
"No I'm Will Horton, the writer." Was I that pretentious, Will questioned himself?
"Come in, so you're the writer from Sonix, the one who wrote about the DiMera's?"
"One and the same, am I too early?"whilst staring at Paul who had now put on a shirt but left it open longer than necessary.
"It was awesome, that's why I asked for you to write this one."
"You requested me specifically?"
"Didn't they tell you?"
"Must be the jet lag, perhaps they did and I don't remember."
"Full disclosure, I was surprised when I answered the door not that I was expecting room service, I wasn't expecting you to be so young."
Will scoffs "There is not much I can do about that"
"You surprised me that's all its fine."
"Hope you don't come to regret asking for me."
"I am sure I won't." Pauls says whilst putting his watch on, a glisten in his eye, how was he going to play this.
Will smiles and looks down to his hand, no ring.
Will stirs and much louder this time says "Paul?"
Paul looks down and sees eyes flutter open and stare back at him, Paul touches his cheek "Will, thank god, you scared me, do you remember anything?"
Will licked his lips as they felt dry, "Errr mausoleum with John, oh god he held a gun at me, was I shot?"
Will tries to raise his head and body up, but he goes light headed "Eurrgghh no, no, won't be doing that in a hurry."
Paul put his head back down into his lap "You okay, what's wrong, do you feel pain anywhere? Doubt you'd be awake if you were shot."
"The only pain is in my head, I feel very dizzy."
Will breathed in and out a few times, trying to concentrate "Tranquiliser, tranquiliser." Will repeated.
Paul asked "What?"
"The gun John had, it was a tranquiliser gun, he shot me and I fell unconscious."
"That would make sense, I was outside the mausoleum and when I heard the gunfire, I came in and you were laying there on the floor."
"I don't remember it being this dark though, Paul where are we?"
"We've been moved down a floor of the mausoleum."
"Another floor? But there were no stairs?" Will coughed slightly before Paul answered him.
"Two of the crypts are fake panels hiding a door; my father mentioned it one time when he told me of a tale of him being a pawn for the DiMera's." Paul explained.
"Do you think we will get out? Why did John put us here? Oh god, Marlena, Steve, Arianna! I have to see her."
Will abruptly struggled to get himself out of Paul's lap regardless of how it made his head thrum with pain.
"I need to see her, I need to tell her, I remember her, the day I held her in my arms, I need too…"
"Woah, Will breathe, clam down, what are you saying, you remember everything?" Paul said restraining him slightly and then placing him next to him to sit.
"No, not exactly, snippets of things appeared, I think they were real, I need to speak to Gabi and Sonny, if he will speak to me, to see if they are real."
Paul's back stiffened "Sonny? You remember him then?"
"Only two things really, I think I came out to him and he delivered Arianna."
Paul didn't speak and just nodded in the dark before replying "We will get out of this for sure and you can see Arianna, my dad must have done this for a reason." Paul murmured the last part as more of a reassurance to himself than to Will.
What was to come next they weren't sure, but they knew someone has to come eventually… right?