A/N: This is set October 2009. Most things are canon except Claudia felt the walls closing in on her and ran. Jason has not figured out for sure it was Claudia and isn't really looking or caring now that she's out of town.

Dominick (Dante) is still on the case against Sonny. I think everything else is explained.

My plan is to update every monday. I'm already working on Chapter 4, so it shouldn't be a problem .

I really hope you like.

Tears stung his eyes at the hot blood pulsated through his veins. Their eyes caught from across the room; glistening tears already spilling down her cheeks as their daughter stood in the middle, "Kristina answer me" he ordered.

She turned to him the black and blue reminding him of a closet in Bensonhurst and another in Greece that he thought they had escaped. Her lips trembled, "Kiefer loves me," she whimpered.

It squeezed at his heart and he reached out to the brush the hair away from the freshly forming fingerprints on her smooth skin, "Love doesn't do this" he managed to choke out his fingers barely grazing their mark.

Swiftly her hands slapped his down, "He just got angry" she tried to explain, "He wouldn't get so angry if he didn't care so much about me" she cried the torrent of tears pouring out of her toffee brown eyes.

There was so much of her mother in her that it made him want to turn away at times. It reminded him of the man Alexis had thought he could be and all of the ways he had failed her…failed them.

"Krissy"

Crossing her arms she looked between them both and then glared at him, "If he didn't love me; he'd just leave" she told him, "Just like you did" she spat her face contorted in a mix of fury and pain.

"KRISTINA" Alexis ordered her voice the cracking point on his broken heart.

Turning to her mother her hands flailed in front of her, "Don't defend him," she ordered tearfully, "He wouldn't defend you," she mocked.

A slight sob choked in her throat and Sonny stood there in sickened silence the words worse than any wound an enemy could inflict on him, "Kristina you don't understand" Alexis said her voice attempting on calming but slightly quaking.

"What don't I understand? That you didn't want me around him? Or that Sonny Corinthos all power, fights for everything, couldn't find the energy to fight for me?" she screamed before turning around and running down the hall.

Both of them stood in stunned silence as the air crackled with tension. Her watched as her shoulders sagged as she stared down the dark hallway. Slowly their eyes met again, "I'm sorry" she choked out.

Her, with that look in those eyes always had the ability to cut at his soul. She was the strongest person he knew and when something broke her it broke him too. Walking towards her he opened his arms and she felt into them like she had done whenever the option of running away was too much to bear. When her head hit his shoulder it was the first spark of believing he could fix the mess he made.

When she pulled away she shook her head, "What are we going to do?" she asked sounding lost.

His jaw tensed and twitched in frustration but his eyes reflected the hurt she was obviously feeling. Swallowing hard he turned around and walked to look out at the dark glistening water. He wasn't a good man; he was faced with that realization every day…and maybe this was just the universes way of reminding him…but they shouldn't have had to pay for his sins…that's not the way it was supposed to be, "I did everything wrong" he said still not able to turn around and look into her eyes.

"Sonny"

"It's true" he interrupted, "After Michael I thought…I thought, you know, she's happy…she doesn't need me…not when I could…not when what happened to Michael could happen to her"

"You were just trying to be a good dad"

Turning he shook his head, "It was the easy way" he admitted, "I could pretend not to see that look in your eyes and how that I kept letting you down, kept making you hurt"

Her face fell and her hand unconsciously came to rest over her heart, "Sonny"

Staring at his shoes he shook his head and then the door burst open, "Mom" Sam called happily and then stopped, "Um"

Looking between mother and daughter he sighed, "I have to go make a call, I'll be right outside" he told Alexis and then nodded at Sam before stepping out onto the patio.

Flipping open his cell he pressed the speed dial number, "Dad!" Morgan greeted happily.

At his sons voice he felt his dimples crater into his face, "Hey buddy, whatcha doing?" he asked.

The boy prattled on about a video game that he had no idea about but just the sound of his voice was enough to stop the bile from rising into his throat, "Okay dad I gotta go Mom's calling me for dinner but I love you"

Choking back emotion he closed his eyes, "I love you too buddy"

Slumping against the wood railing he fought back the tears that pooled in his eyes. After a short while the door opened and Sam walked out pausing next to him before sitting down, "Even before I knew she was my sister she meant a lot to me" she told him, "Because when I saw her growing and healthy it reminded her of our baby. She was supposed to have a good life Sonny; this wasn't supposed to happen to her" she said choking up.

Closing his eyes he looked up to where the stars shone down on them, "I'm going to make this better"

Her small hand touched his shoulder, "We're all going to make this better. Kristina has too many people in her corner for this to go on"

A small sad smile came to his face as he looked to her out of the corner of his eye, "Yeah"

Nodding she pushed herself off the wood steps and walked to her car. He waited until her taillights disappeared into the night before he pushed off too. Looking to the night sky one more time he thought about his mother and prayed for history to never repeat itself.

OoO

"Hey" Alexis greeted nervously.

It was as if they were surrounded by eggshells and tiptoeing around each other for a moment, "I thought you might have gone"

The impact of her words felt like a knife to his heart as he realized that Kristina wasn't the only one who had lost faith in him. Most people had sworn hers was decimated years ago but it wasn't until that moment that he realized how totally gone it really was.

Steadying his gaze he looked at her intently knowing that before if he looked hard enough he would get past her eyes, past her head and into her soul, "She doesn't think I fought for her when I should have…but I'm sure as hell going to fight for her now."

There was a spark of something in her toffee eyes before she looked away; something that told him maybe Kristina wasn't the only one he had to fight for.