You Can't Always Get What You Want
August 2009
"I don't want to be here any more than you do. Just shut up and stop complaining," Ric Lansing hissed at his half-brother Sonny Corinthos as they were sitting at General Hospital, waiting for their appointment with Lainey.
"That's rich. You've done nothing but whine and try to gather as much sympathy as you can get." Sonny fired back, looking grumpy and annoyed.
"An appointment in the name of Corinthos?" asked a very pretty psychiatrist Dr. Lainey Winters who now had the unenviable task of having to deal with the brothers this afternoon.
"Change that to Lansing, it was his idea that we're here so he's the fruitcake, not me." Sonny protested, not happy that his name was used in the appointment.
"Keep it Corinthos. He needs the therapy more desperately than I do. He's the one who has people killed as a profession," Ric retorted as they stood up and made their way to Lainey's office, both looking sullen and unhappy.
"So, gentlemen, what brings you here today?" Lainey asked after shaking hands with both men and taking a seat in her black, leather chair facing Ric and Sonny who were sitting next to each other on the couch.
"I certainly am not here by choice. It was our wives decision that we should get counseling and like the little wuss my brother is, he succumbed without a fight." Sonny declared, crossing his hands on his chest in defiance.
"Hah. I'm here because for the sake of my family, I want to keep the peace. Sonny's here because he likes to play the perennial victim, poor Sonny who everyone should feel sorry for because of his hard life. Please," Ric laughed sarcastically and moved a few inches to the opposite direction, away from Sonny.
"That's real mature Ric. How old were you again? 6?" Sonny uttered and mocked his brother's actions.
"Gentlemen, that's not very productive. Would either one of you explain; why there is this tension between you two?" Lainey asked, trying to steer the conversation to something other than extremely loud bickering.
"How much time do you have? My brother has made it his mission in life to make mine as miserable as possible. There is no way to reason with him and I cannot get rid of him no matter what I do. I've tried disowning him but he keeps popping up, trying to screw with me," Sonny complained fervently while shooting daggers at Ric.
"You're the one who can't let go of the past. I have tried apologizing until I'm blue in the face and to no avail. I can't change the past and I'm not proud of the things I've done but Sonny is like a judge, jury and executioner rolled into one. He just enjoys watching me grovel and fail; he gets off on it," Ric said raising his voice and looking at Sonny with the utmost disgust.
"You locked up my pregnant wife in a panic room, you've tried to kill me, you married Alexis just because you wanted to get back at me at Kristina's expense and because of you, Claudia Zacchara is in our lives. The moment I give you any leeway, you find away to ruin my life." Sonny shot back.
"How is Claudia exactly my fault? I'd love to know that but I guess everything that goes wrong for you is my fault. See, this is not going anywhere because I can never do anything right in his eyes and he loves to make all his misery my fault," Ric said giving Lainey a dark look and sighed.
"Because you couldn't keep your pants zipped, that's why. You had to have Claudia and it didn't care that she is a complete psycho who was willing to do anything to destroy me," Sonny angrily shouted.
"Look who's talking. The resident manwhore of Port Charles wants to lecture me about sleeping with Claudia. You are the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen and a self-righteous ass on top of that. Claudia and I have been over for a long time, I'm a married man now and I haven't seen her in months."
"Hypocrite? Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? You, the district attorney, have committed more crimes than half the people you're trying to send to prison," Sonny exclaimed.
"Gentlemen. I know tempers are flaring, but I would like you to individually and calmly tell me how you feel about this rift between you and the reasons for it. Mr. Corinthos, would you go first?" Lainey tried again to make the session more productive and not just a lot of shouting and finger pointing.
"Fine. I was doing marvelously; I had no need for a brother of any kind. Then this one pops up and blames me for every little thing in his miserable life. Ric's shtick is this whole woe-is-me crap; he had a bad childhood, his father was a monster, it was my fault my mother left him and because of that, his sins should be whitewashed and never mentioned again. Ric is the kind of guy that will shake your hand with one hand and use the other to stab you in the back. I don't trust him, I don't like him and I have no use for him. I would be more than happy to never see him again but alas, that won't happen because of our wives."
"You are an unbelievable bastard. This is what I mean, I could be Mother Teresa and still he would treat me like crap. He has a Napoleon complex and everything is always about him. His emotional pain, his discomfort, his bad childhood, his feelings of inadequacy and his bad life choices, which are always someone else's fault. I'm no saint and I will admit that I have done things to Sonny which are horrible but trust me, he's given as good as he's got. I don't want to spend time with him either but out of respect to my wife, I will," Ric said with determination.
"What do your wives have to do with this?" Lainey asked, her curiosity piqued. She did not follow town gossip, at least not recently so she was in the dark when it came to the personal life of the brothers who were now sitting on the couch complaining about each other.
"My wife Alexis is the mother of Ric's wife Sam. So, I'm forced to spend Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays and other holidays with this cockroach," Sonny said with a long sigh.
"That feeling mutual, trust me. I know this all might seem a little incestuous…" Ric started until Lainey interrupted him.
"A little? You are married to your ex-wife's daughter who also happens to be your daughter's sister. From what I gather, you probably spend too much time together, which escalates your problems. You don't like each other and my first advice is to minimize the time spent together. When there is distance between you guys, it might be easier to put this whole thing into perspective. I would also like to see you individually so we could work on your issues separately. You Sonny want to control everything while Ric is the uncontrollable factor in everything, which leads you to conflict. You Ric, you want Sonny to appreciate you and respect you and when that doesn't happen, you lash out," Lainey surrendered, realizing the problems the brothers had would not be fixed overnight.
"I don't need therapy, thank you very much. You're the shrink, fix whatever mental illness my brother has and get him to leave me alone," Sonny protested.
"Our time is almost up, but I truly would advice you two to come and see me regularly. You both have a lot of resentment towards each other which in my option needs to be resolved." Lainey said as she noticed Ric's eyes flare dangerously.
"Thank you Miss Winters, but I don't need therapy. I have lived without my brother's approval for years now and I can continue that way." Ric said as the small beeper went off, indicating the end of the session. He sat up and shook hands with the woman before exiting the room quickly. Sonny followed his actions with a nod in Lainey's direction and a quick handshake before he was off.
"Can you believe that bullshit she was saying? I don't want to get yelled at home, so agree to tell the wives the session went great?" Sonny asked as he cached up with Ric who was swirling car keys in his hand.
"Fine. See you at the Sunday dinner," Ric replied, walking to the elevator, wanting to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. Sonny watched him go and then waited for a few minutes before taking the next elevator down. What a wasted day, he though as the doors closed in front of him.
The End.
