Looking Back - A Days Of Our Lives Fan Fic
I don't own any of the characters presented therein. All right reserved to NBC and Days Of Our Lives
Today was the fifth year anniversary of the night I was shot and Ariana Grace's fifth birthday. How crazy that both the worst day of my life and the best day of my life, fell on the same day.
It all started back in the summer of 2011 with the explosion that rocked Salem and killed and injured many.
Also the day that I made a baby with my ex girlfriend Gabi Hernandez. But that I wouldn't learn about for a few months, and after I had just gotten together with Sonny. A series of misunderstandings got in the way, until T told me that Sonny liked me as much as I liked him.
I still remember that day fondly, when I went to Common Grounds after talking to T and he told me that Sonny had feelings for me.
Sonny was slow and patient with me right from the beginning. Not wanting to scare me, I guess, he said we didn't have to define our relationship right away.
Then, enter my dad. I let him play with my head and on my insecurities about Sonny. He was more experienced than I was and more worldly. My dad made me doubt him, which to this day, I've always regretted. Sonny gave me no reason to doubt him, but because of T, we made up after a few weeks, we made love for the first time.
It was the most glorious night of my life. I finally felt secure in my own skin, for the very first time and I knew where I belonged.
Then Gabi came a knockin. She had to talk to me rather urgently. I told her to give me a minute to get dressed. I told Sonny I'd rather be with him, but he understood how good of a friend I was and told me to hurry back.
I met Gabi in the park, where she told me she was pregnant and that she'd done the math, and that I was the father.
I was beyond floored and scared. I didn't know what to do. I did tell her that we would figure out what to do together.
I always regret not telling Sonny about AG right from the start, but it did turn out and that's really all that matters.
Anyway, problem with whatever Gabi and I would have wanted to do, Nick got in the way.
He played with my head and insecurities as well about losing Sonny and so did Gabi, looking back on it. Neither of them had any faith in me and Sonny and my fears of losing him overpowered my reasoning to tell him.
Then the slurs started. Nick called me "gay boy" on many occasion, but I kept making excuses for him.
Nick even had convinced me to let him pass the baby off as his, which I stupidly went along with.
Thankfully, I'm not that naïve or stupid anymore. I chuckled to myself, thinking how much I'd grown as person since then.
Everything was going fine, until Chad overheard Dr. Cameron and Gabi talking about how Nick couldn't be the father of her baby.
Just a day before the wedding, Sonny asked me to move in with him. I was over the moon with joy, but it wouldn't last.
The day of the wedding arrived, and all was going smoothly until Uncle Eric got to the part where if anyone had objections they should speak now or forever hold their peace.
Chad stood up and bellowed out how he knew that Nick wasn't the father or her baby and that's who she should be marrying.
I didn't see any way around it, so I fessed up to being the father of Gabi's baby, and that not only imploded my relationship with Sonny that day but also busted the charade that Nick and Gabi were trying to shroud themselves in.
Everyone, but Sonny, at first anyway, was supportive of me and didn't hate me, well my mom did, but she was just hurt that I would not want to be apart of my child's life.
Thing is, I did, but I didn't know how I was going to be without any help and no one to share it with.
My grandma Marlena told me to not give up on Sonny and to tell him how I felt, I did that, but he remained angry with me. But what grandma told me stuck with me, so I kept coming around him and his demeanor finally started to soften after a few weeks.
I was prepared to let him go at this point, because of something Brian had told me, but I would find out later that he'd lied to me.
The next week I received the mp3 player gift he'd gotten me for Valentine's Day and decided to write down how I felt about Sonny and how much I appreciated getting a second chance with him.
That was not the time he'd get to read it, as I had jumped to the wrong conclusion about the mp3 player, but Sonny told me to keep it and went on a date with Brian.
I was crushed, but I didn't have anyone to blame but myself.
The week after that, Gabi went into premature labor and I was in tears not knowing what to do or what to think, but as I looked past my dad who'd just arrived, the one person I needed the most showed up and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders.
Sonny had come to the hospital for me. I wanted him, no, I needed him to stay. He was the only thing holding me together as we waited to hear if Gabi and my baby girl were gonna be okay.
He made me smile and laugh about how bad I was at ice skating. I did tell him I would take lessons, and I have. I've gotten much better. It's a surprise, but this winter, we're going to take AG ice skating for the first time.
In the early morning hours of the next day, we got word that both my daughter, she wasn't "ours" yet just then and Gabi were fine and were advised to go home.
Sonny suggested that we go to CG for some halfway decent coffee.
As I went to splash some cold water on my face, he said he was going to start brewing some for us.
I came back into the room and saw that Sonny was reading the card I never gave him. It was because I thought I'd lost him forever. Boy was I wrong.
After a little talk, Sonny asked me if I still felt this way?
I just looked at him blankly, on the verge of tears, but all he had to do was kiss me to reignite my passion for him and his passion for me.
In no time we were back at my dorm room, but before we could make up, I had to tell him all of my secrets.
Even though he told me I didn't have to tell him all these things, I knew I had to if things were going to be different this time.
That night and over the next few months, our love became stronger than it had ever been and Sonny reassured me whenever he could that he loved me and wanted to be with me.
Again, unfortunately, but only a temporary problem, Nick blackmailed me with what I'd done to EJ to get me to sign away my parental rights to my daughter.
That was another terrible moment in my life, because I had to protect my entire family from whatever repercussions Nick might do if I didn't. I couldn't take that chance, but it was far from over. I just didn't know it then.
Sonny continued to be my rock all throughout this, and one day in mid March, we were sitting it the family pub when Sonny said we would give Ariana Grace an amazing life and that he wanted me to be happy.
That made me incredibly happy. Even happier than I already was.
April 2012 went by in a flash.
Sonny and my mom got my confession out of Nick's possession and erased whatever back ups he had and Stefano had the evidence against me destroyed, well I thought so anyway.
May came around, and that's when things started to go terribly wrong.
Rafe was assaulted right after I told him about Nick being a bigot and he ended up in a coma.
At almost the exact same time, JJ came back to town and thankfully thought Sonny and I being together was cool. I didn't know then, but he'd play a big part in Ariana's life.
JJ did get himself into some trouble, and ultimately it was Sonny and I that helped him out of it which made our bond as cousins even stronger.
But before all this, a man who was in jail with Nick, kidnapped him and a very pregnant Gabi and took them to Smith Island.
Sonny and I managed to escape with Gabi, but I went back to try to help free Nick.
In the ensuing fight, I got shot and fell to the ground.
While this was happening, Sonny was helping to deliver Ariana Grace because Gabi went into labor.
Anything after that, I didn't know about and no one would tell me, except to say that the man was dead.
I laid unconscious in the hospital for several weeks completely unaware of what was going on around me.
When I did finally wake up, it was to a sleeping Sonny by my bedside. I was weak, but I managed to raise my arm and run my fingers through his very matted hair. I didn't care though, because it was my Sonny and he always brought me comfort. This caused him to stir as we stared motionless into each others eyes for the first time in weeks.
I tried to speak, but Sonny raised his fingers to my lips, for which I kissed them and then he told me he'd be right back.
He got Dr. Jonas and asked him to examine me. When he was satisfied, the tube down my throat was removed and I was able to start breathing on my own.
I was in a hell of a lot of pain in my stomach from where I was shot.
I was told not to speak yet, but I could hear Dr. Jonas tell Sonny how to administer morphine for my pain when he saw that I needed it.
The next day, Sonny surprised me by bringing in Ariana Grace for me to meet for the very first time. She had my blonde hair and Sonny's deep chocolate brown eyes. There was no mistaking she was ours.
Holding her for the very first time was more wondrous than I ever could have imagined, but to see Sonny hold her was doubly so.
As soon as I was well enough, Sonny took me home. It was a nice two bedroom apartment that he'd gotten for us while I was unconscious and he'd already made up the nursery for when Ariana would be staying with us.
At first I was confused because of the blackmail, but Sonny said that after all that happened, Gabi left Nick and said she was going to let us have Ariana anytime we wanted.
Nick continued to have problems after that from Vargas and being driven over the deep end, he tried but failed to kidnap Gabi and Ariana.
This time though, we let the cops handle it as I was still recovering and required a little physical therapy to help get back to where I was before the shooting.
So after Ariana was indeed safe again and Nick was found dead because of Vargas, Gabi's secret about what she'd done came to light and after a grueling custody battle, I was awarded sole custody of Ariana and was given the right to dictate when and how Gabi saw her daughter. The judge told Gabi, if she could prove herself to the court, she could try to regain partial custody of Ariana.
Gabi didn't try very hard. After losing Nick and Ariana, she sunk into a deep depression and decided to leave town.
Sonny and I had a difficult few months getting accustomed to having Ariana all the time, but somehow we did. It only became difficult again when school started again and Sonny and I had to start working more regularly to make sure Ariana was taken care of.
A bone of contention for a while was Sonny going into business with a friend of his. I didn't like the risky idea, but Sonny was dead set on it and I couldn't stop him, so I just sat back. To my surprise it turned out to be a successful thing and got us enough money to live comfortably for a while.
Ariana was growing by leaps and bounds and by early October was crawling all around the floor and balancing herself on the coffee table in the living room trying to learn to walk.
On my birthday in November, Sonny surprised me by proposing marriage and I wholeheartedly accepted with happy tears in my eyes. Marriage equality had finally passed in Illinois after a long and lengthy battle in the senate.
We didn't rush into getting married because both of our families wanted to give us a lavish wedding. So we decided on spring of 2014.
Everyone was happy for us.
When we christened Ariana in early December, we chose as God parents for her - Chad, Abby, JJ, T and Cassie.
Cassie had come back to town during Rafe's time in a coma and they were now seeing each other.
I felt bad for grandma Kate, she had given us such great advice and we were so happy, we wanted her to be happy too. She said she was happy to be able to spoil her grandchild.
We were married in the early spring of April in a very big affair in HTS. Our mothers and grandma Kate outdid themselves, but it was a wonderful day and there wasn't a dry eye anywhere when we read our vows to each other.
As part of the Greek tradition, we smashed a glass just before the reception started and we were congratulated by so many people.
While we danced, my mom held Ariana up so she could see her daddies. She smiled at us and was giggling being bounced up and down on her knee.
Justin helped us to file the adoption papers for Sonny to officially become her father soon after we came back from our lavish Greek honeymoon.
The adoption was finalized in the summer.
By then, AG was walking and talking some.
Her fist word was "dada" as she looked at me and as soon as she could say it, she said "papa" to Sonny. We both got teary eyed when we heard those wonderful words come from her.
It hasn't always been easy, but we stuck it out and are happier than either of us could have ever have imagined back when we first got together.
Everything we'd been through has made us stronger and deeper in love.
Now, Ariana was 5 years old and about to start first grade this year, but first we had to celebrate her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's.
I heard a knock on the door just as I put the pen down.
"Daddy, papa wants to know when you're coming out so we can go to Chuck E. Cheese's?" Ariana asked me.
"I was just about to angel." I said to her swinging my chair around to look at her.
"Thank God." She said.
She had a little sass about her, just like my mom, but I was going to make sure that was kept to a minimum.
I chuckled to myself getting up from the chair and picking her up and carrying her into the living room to a waiting Sonny.
"This little diva here has been waiting an hour for you to come out." Sonny said.
"Yeah, sorry about that but I kinda got caught up in what I was doing." I said.
"What were you doing?" He asked.
"I was thinking back at all that's happened in my life since you and I got together five years ago." I said, blushing.
"You're so cute when you blush." He said as he kissed me on the cheek.
Ari wanted to get going, so we did.
We met up with the whole family at Chuck E. Cheese's but ended the party at Aunt Jenn's house, where our little angel zonked out from all the running around she'd been doing, which gave the grown ups time to catch up on what's been going on in their lives.
The End