Ameliorated Chapter One

Sonny felt as if there was a knife penetrating his heart. He slowly crawled onto the bed he shared with Will. Will, his Will. William Robert Horton. Sonny smiled in spite of himself. The memory fragmented into his head for an instant, "I thought your name was Jackson?"said a very confused Will. He was so cute Sonny's first day in Salem. Thinking he was a rival for Chad with Abigail, the look on his face when he found out that he, Sonny, was also Abigail's cousin. And now, Sonny couldn't imagine living without his Will.

But right now, Sonny couldn't stop shivering. He desperately wanted to call Will and ask him to come home, or at least tell him what happened, which of course would bring Will swiftly home. He reached down to the bottom of the bed and it was then that he realized he could still smell the faint smoky odor. He finally laid his hands on the softness and warmth of the quilt that he and Will shared with Arianna on cold Salem nights. Sonny then thought how grateful he was that Gabi was off visiting her mother and had Ari with her. He couldn't imagine her being a part of this nightmare. He didn't want to be here either but he didn't have a choice; it was his club after all.

Sonny inched his way over to Will's side of the bed and shook his pillow free of the covers. He sunk his head into Will's pillow and a sigh inadvertently escaped his lips. Sonny felt both safe and totally lost. Oh how he had missed Will before last night, but now the feeling was ten-fold. Two more days before Will finally came home to him. At the moment, Sonny wasn't sure he could last that long, but he was determined not to bother Will at his writing seminar. It had been hard enough getting Will to go back to Berkley with his creative writing professor so Sonny just didn't have the heart to call him home; no matter what the circumstances may be. . .

Sonny was hot. He was in the flames again and couldn't breathe because of the smoke. His level of anxiety was rising by the second. Sonny couldn't find his way out, where was the door? He became disoriented and just knew he was going to die in this fire. He was more sad than scared now, knowing that he would never see Arianna Grace or Will again. As Sonny accepted his fate and began to crumble to the floor, from a place far away he heard someone calling to him. "No, that can't be right", he thinks. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his back and a familiar voice was bringing him back from this vortex. Sonny slowly opened his eyes and looked up and was immediately jolted into a sitting position. There in front of him was, dare he say or even think it? It was his Will! He asked him if he is really there, if he was real? Will smiled at him with that sweet smile that reached all the way up to his eyes, the smile that always made Sonny feel loved and a little bit turned on, okay so it gave him an instant hard on. But right now he was too confused for that. This imaginary Will is talking to him now, what's he saying? "Sonny, it's me baby, I'm here, honest", said imaginary Will. But maybe, just maybe he really IS here?

"Will? Will is that really you?" Sonny said, in a voice he barely recognized.

"Yes, hunny I'm right here", this Will said to him as he stroked his back. Sonny was 99% sure that Will was really here in their bedroom but he still needed to ask. So the question on his lips tumbled out in a rush and Sonny asked,

"How come you are here? You are not supposed to be home for two days."

Will ran his hand through Sonny's thick brunette hair and said, "Grampa Roman called and told me what happened." Will continued, "I was able to catch a really early morning flight and come home as soon as possible."

As Will was speaking, he continued to nudge closer to Sonny. He could tell that Sonny was extremely upset, with good cause, and the only thought in Will's head at the moment was to make him feel better. Sonny was going on about how Roman shouldn't have called him.

"I wanted you to come home so badly, but I never would have called you", Sonny said. He went on to say, "I wrestled with this all night and I was really proud of myself that I didn't give into my feelings." Sonny felt triumphant that he didn't call Will up to cry or complain to him. "But I gotta tell you, Will, I was never so glad to see anybody in my entire life. I don't know how I would've gotten through the day without you by my side," Sonny said. As Sonny talked, he had scooted up into a sitting position with his back against the headboard while resting on Will's pillows. Will had continued to move closer to Sonny as he spoke. His nostrils began to pick up a distinct acrid smell coming from Sonny. It both alarmed and saddened him realizing everything that Sonny had gone through the previous night and all without him there by his side. Will's eyes felt prickly with the hot tears forming in his eyes, both from the caustic odor and from his empathy for his life partner. Sonny wasn't just "Sonny", he was HIS Sonny and he didn't want him to have a bad moment let alone the nightmare that Will knew he was living in now. He had never seen Sonny cry, not really. Oh sure he teared up at Arianna's christening and when Will finally said yes, Sonny, yes to you, yes to you and me.

At the moment that Sonny understood that Will was indeed going to marry him, yeah Will saw a few tears, but at this particular moment, Will was looking at a stranger. Oh, this was his Sonny but this version had tears streaming down his cheeks and there was a haunted look in his eyes that Will found painful to look at and wanted so badly to eliminate.

Will reached close enough to Sonny to wipe away his tears. He laced his fingers behind Sonny's head and gently swabbed under his eyes with his thumbs until the tears were obliterated. The blonde asked Sonny quietly to explain what had happened. Sonny's eyes instantly filled with water and began to spill over onto Will's thumbs. Will's arms encompassed Sonny and he began rubbing circles gently onto Sonny's back. Will rocked him slowly back and forth and spoke nonsense words into his ear. He continued to tell Sonny that it was okay and to shush and take deep breaths. Finally, Sonny seemed to calm down enough to be able to give Will a report on what had transpired the night before. Sonny pulled away from Will, just far enough to speak. He looked deep into Will's sparkling blue eyes and said that he had lost everything the night before and that Club TBD had completely burned to the ground. Sonny then exhaustedly fell into Will's open arms and sobbed uncontrollably.