Characters: Duh Alexis and Sonny.

Summary: Hmm, let's just say that Sonny wakes up to what he put everyone through and now is ready for forgiveness and a second chance. I started this story a couple of months back so Sonny/Carly re-marriage hasn't happened nor Ric turning into a complete a!. I've decided to continue with this story and wanted to set the foundation.

Chapter 1

When he walked into my den, the last thing I wanted was to see his worthless face. You see for the past couple of weeks, I had been going through what some would call a mid-life crisis; others might call it a revelation. I at this point, was calling it stupidity. Stupidity on my part. I let her leave my side and it wasn't until she was faced with an illness that had the ability to take her away from her kids and me did I realize I wasted time. I wasted a lot of my time on the wrong things, wrong women and now reality was giving me a slap in the face. The one woman who made me believe I was better than my past was now leaving my life forever and in addition to feeling pissed I was feeling powerless and for a man like myself, a man who had made his life resting on the power he portrayed by the simple sound of his name was unacceptable.

"What do you want?"

The smirk on his face made me want to wipe the floor with him but with the help of the medication I was currently on, my more violent impulses was being controlled at a better pace. He looked me in my eye and for a second I saw a flicker of regret for what he was putting everyone through. A flicker of regret for the destructive path that he had chosen that was causing all of this chaos within our family.

He threw a manila envelope of papers at me; my eyes barely betrayed any emotion at the movement he had just exhibited. I looked up at him refusing to greedily scan over the papers instead infuriating him more because I wanted him to say it. I wanted him to acknowledge the path that he had chosen and what happened as a result of it. I wanted him to know that with the throwing of the papers my way he had in essence claimed that his reign of terror was over. No longer could he get at me through the one woman he always knew was my weakness. He didn't have her blinded anymore to his faults, he had seen to that one almost single handedly.

"These are the papers you've been waiting for since you heard about my little incident with her. You've been waiting for a chance to ruin my life, here's your chance."

I snort at his ability to twist the situation around to suit his reality, "You screwed over your wife and it's my fault that your life's ruined? I wasn't the one that jumped into bed with her stepdaughter that was all you. For once, just accept the fact that you were wrong and the only way that you can help exonerate your guilt is this packet of papers which you just laid down."

His gaze left mine as he looked down and softly said, "All I ever wanted was for you to step up to the plate and be a brother to me. I never got that from you, I never got anything from you but reproach and disdain."

I look at his bowed head and for once feel nothing more than the urge to send him flying from this room at any means necessary, "You speak of brothers yet you kidnapped my wife. You speak of family yet you slept with Carly and tried to make her think it was me, you speak of brothers yet when I let you be the surrogate father to my daughter you screw over everything and everyone. What the hell do you think I've been doing these last couple of years? I've been dealing with you and your inability to realize what you have. Let it go, we will never be close. You've had one too many chances and not a one of them have you used for good. This is the only thing, I will ever be grateful for. This is the one time that you did something selfless."

He looked up at me, "You know don't you?"

I refuse to acknowledge his statement simply meeting his phrase with a raised eyebrow.

He started to grin and I felt the tremblings of fear in my chest, "What do you think you know?"

He sat down at once triumphant and ridiculous, "You know that what you thought was love wasn't and now you are faced with the fact that you may never get her back. You are faced with the fact that you wasted years trying to hate the one woman who made you worthy of yourself."

I look away instead choosing to focus my attention on the water bottle that used to reside in the place of the bar and ignoring the sound of his voice which was quickly becoming like fingernails running down a chalkboard.

"Is that why you can't look at me now? Is it because you realize that every word I'm saying is the truth? Well to tell you the truth, I've been waiting for this moment for years. For years literally and now that you just dumped the victory into my lap I will enjoy it."

I met his gleeful gaze with one of intense hatred, "What are you talking about?"

He stood up looking for all the world like a cat eating cream as he spoke, "You always believed it was Carly that was the love of your life. You always believed it was her that set the sun, moon and the stars but one time, one time when I was in the room with you and her and I watched you watching her, I knew. She was the love of your life, she made you complete and then I set out to take your place in her heart."

I walked over to the bar and gripped the water bottle holding it so tightly that I was sure it was going to explode in my hands. He knew that she was the one woman that I had a weakness for and he had exploited it and her all the while using my child.

"I must admit when I first met her I was intrigued how a common thug like yourself had convinced an Harvard graduate to lower her standards and then day by day I became more intrigued with her when I saw that you were still struggling to be a part of her life. You wanted to be back where you once were but you had no way of making that happen."

I looked up at him from the water bottle I was still gripping and said, "Are you admitting that your child with Alexis was a lie that your life with Alexis was a lie? That you never felt anything for her at all?"

I was ready to pounce on him barring the response that came out of his mouth next. He looked up at him and again I saw regret, "I did a stupid thing. I fell in love with the object of my vengeance. I was determined to use her to get you back but I didn't realize that I had fallen in love with her. She turned the tables on me; she let me in to her soul, not all of it of course because there were still pieces of her soul that you inhabited. Pieces that I never got to touch, I did love her and I know she loved me but I ruined it."

I let go of the water bottle and proceeded to face the man that I once tried to look at as my brother but now was only faced with the disdain that I held for him. I wanted him out of my life and out of her life and out of my face for good. Choosing instead to ruin the image that he had of me that I would go off and give him the beating he deserved I motioned to the papers. "Are those finalized?"

He looked up at me almost shocked that I had not continued to discuss the self destructive path he had started on and what it obviously meant to him and mine but instead focusing on the reason that he was in my home at this moment, "Finalized, notarized and actualized. She is once again a free woman retaining full custody of Molly. Why did you go through all these motions if she's death bound anyway? I could always have them revoked and retain custody of Molly, while I love Kristina she's not going to stay with anybody but you."

I look him in the eyes and speak, "She's not dying. She's just giving up hope and I'm giving it back to her with these papers, these papers which help set right so many wrongs that were made, these mistakes that we made with our lives aren't helping her get better. This just starts the path."

He looks at me and meets my gaze with a snort of his own, "You truly believe that after everything she'll take you back. She'll let you in that heart of hers and she'll allow you by her side?"

I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that those thoughts were the same things running through my mind. "Our business is done here Ric. Stay away from Alexis and the girls until she's strong enough to handle you and then you better pray that every word that comes out of your mouth is good because anything to upset her and your ass is mine. Get out of here."

Let me know your thoughts.