Hi everyone... in this story Gabi went to New York ALONE, years ago. Ari is eight and lives with Will and Sonny in Salem.

Will's POV

(...Present...)

"Daddy..."

"Yes honey..."

Ari is comfortably sitting in my lap, with her head resting on my shoulder. She is still slightly sniffing from all the emotions of today and I try to comfort her by softly stroking her little back. Before she continues talking she lifts up her head and her blue eyes, identical to mine, look up at me.

"Do you remember when Sonny bought Lisa for me?"

I smile at the memory. Sonny was very busy at the club for a few weeks, barely seeing Ari during that time, or me for that matter. And when things slowed down he came home one day with a new doll, which Ari called Lisa, and instantly became her favourite.

"I do, honey... you love that doll, don't you."

She nods her head frantically, and continues her road down memory lane:

"And do you remember when he tried to make me a birthday cake, and we ended up eating just the icing because the rest was just gross?"

"I do remember that... he tried really hard you know..."

"I know..."

She puts her head back on my shoulder and her little hand curls around the zipper of my jacket.

"He has to be OK daddy, he just has to be OK..."

I hug her close, trying to be strong for both of us:

"He will be sweetie... he will be fine..."

(...Two hours earlier...)

"Will?"

"Speaking..."

"Hi this is Cameron..."

"Hi, what's up..."

I put my phone on speaker so I can put it in front of me while continuing to fold the laundry that I just took out of the tumble dryer.

"Will, are you alone or..."

"Yeah I'm at home, Ari's at school and Sonny's at the club... why..."

"OK... I need you to take a deep breath and stay calm..."

Suddenly I am alarmed and I frown while I pick the phone up and hold it closer to my face.

"What is going on Cameron...?"

"Something happened at the club... Someone went crazy and he started to hit Sonny... People got him away but then Sonny was already unconscious."

I feel how the air is pushed out of me and I sit down on the couch because my legs suddenly feel wobbly.

"Will..."

I try to answer but it takes me a while to find my voice. My heart is pounding and I can't think clearly because fear is taking control of me.

"Will... are you still there..."

"Yeah..."

"OK, he has a brain haemorrhage and due to the size of it he went into surgery about ten minutes ago... You said you were home, so I am going to call your mum and she will come and pick you up, OK? And I will also call Adrienne..."

"OK."

I don't know what else to say or do, so I just sit there on the couch for what must be half an hour, until I hear a knock on the door and I hear my mother's high voice:

"Will... open the door."

I stand up and walk to door, feeling like a robot. The moment I see her I feel her arms around me and I hug her tight while I feel slightly comforted by her presence.

"Let's go to the hospital honey..."

"OK... what about Ari... she is still in school for another hour..."

"Let's get you to the hospital and get an update and then I will pick her up and we hopefully can give her good news."

I nod, glad that my mum is immediately taking control, because right now I have no strength left to do anything but worry about Sonny. While we are in the car I close my eyes and vividly remember how he kissed me this morning. Just before he went out the door he pulled me close and kissed me firmly after whispering a soft 'I love you'. Then he held the door open for Ari because he was giving her a ride to school.

"Mum..."

"Yes honey..."

"I love him so much."

"I know honey... he will be fine... I know he will."

The moment we walk out of the elevator towards the nurses' station I catch Maxine's eye. She immediately comes up to me and gives me one her comforting hugs. She explains softly how they took Sonny into surgery, how dr. Smith is one of the best brain surgeons around, and how Sonny is going to be fine. I smile softly and sigh:

"He better be OK."

(...Present...)

So now here we are , in the waiting room of the hospital. Ari is sitting in my lap and my mum, Adrienne and Justin are trying to keep up a random conversation. But we are all worried, and so far we have not yet had any updates. So I just listen to my sweet daughter babbling away:

"Daddy..."

"Hmmm?"

"What is Sonny?"

"What do you mean honey?"

"When I go to Janet's house she has a mummy and a daddy. And my mummy is in New York and I see sometimes. And you are my daddy... so what is Sonny?"

I swallow and suddenly realise how everyone is listening to our conversation. I look at Justin and Adrienne and smile before I sit Ari up so I can look at her:

"What do you think Sonny is honey..."

Her big blue eyes are locked onto mine and I get the feeling she is a bit hesitant with her answer.

"You won't get mad at me?"

"Of course I won't Ari?"

"...In my head I call him daddy too..."

For moment I just sit there, staring into the bright blue in front of me. Then I just pull her close and whisper over and over again:

"I love you... I love you..."

For a while she lets me hug her and then she gets fed up and pulls her way to freedom:

"Daddy... let me go..."

I smile at her and let go of my tight grip. She gets of my lap and sits down at the small round table full with children's toys, unaware of my ongoing emotions. Adrienne, who is sitting two chairs away from me reaches over to grab my hand. She squeezes it tight and I look at her with tears in my eyes, whispering:

"She has no idea... she just made a mess of me..."

"And me..."

We laugh and I shake my head while looking at my little girl while she is concentrating on her colouring.

(... One day later...)

"Did you bring my drawing?"

"Yes I did sweetie... I've got it right here..."

Ari is pulling at my hand while I tell her where to go. Because Sonny was in surgery late yesterday, we decided for Ari to go home with my mum while I stayed with Sonny's parents and waited for him to wake up. The moment he opened his sweet brown eyes and he flashed me his beautiful smile I knew he was alright, and finally I was able to relax. And now I am taking our little girl to see him, and I have never seen her this impatient.

"Come on daddy, walk faster... are we almost there?"

"We are almost there... it is the door with eight on it..."

"Oh I see it... I see it..."

She pushes the door open and I just stand in the door opening to watch while the two most important people in my life hold each other in a big bear hug. She climbs on the bed and throws her small arms around his neck, while he pulls her in his lap and holds her close to his chest. Soon she is jumping up and down while holding on to him as tight as she can:

"You're OK... You're OK..."

"I sure am honey... what is that you are holding..."

"I made a drawing for you, daddy..."

Sonny and I look at each other and I see the confusion in his chocolate eyes, so I decide to help him a little bit.

"She made you a drawing babe..."

He looks at me and back at Ari who is holding the drawing up so he can see. She immediately starts explaining the drawing to him, unaware what that little word just did to her daddies:

"See... this is me, and this is daddy and this is you... and you two are holding hands because you always do that..."

She makes a face while saying that, but I can't help but smile:

"She is right, we do do that..."

Sonny still seems slightly in another world so I lean over and kiss his cheek:

"You OK honey?"

He nods while looking at me, emotions painted on his handsome face. He takes the drawing from her reaching hands and smiles softly at her:

"That is perfect sweet pea...thank you."

She smiles and then puts on her serious face while her hand softly strokes his forehead:

"Daddy said you hurt your head... is it OK now?"

"It is fine now... the doctors fixed it..."

"Good... cause I didn't like it yesterday...I was scared, and daddy was too..."

He pulls her close and kisses her forehead:

"I'm fine again, don't worry, OK? Now, you go and find Maxine because she said she could get you some apple juice..."

Moments later she walks out the door, looking for Maxine, and we are together. He stretches out his hand so he can pull me towards him while tugging on my scarf. I lean in and kiss him softly on his lips.

"She was right you know... I was scared yesterday."

"I'm fine baby."

I pick the drawing up from his lap and hang it on his board, knowing what he is going to talk about next.

"I know it probably means nothing, but did you hear..."

I don't even let him finish:

"It means something baby..."

His brown eyes look at me, showing a fear to hope for something he is afraid he can't have. I sit down on the side of his bed and take his hand in mine while I say:

"It definitely means something..."

"Maybe it was just a mistake."

I shake my head and smile fondly while I cup his beautiful face with my hands:

"Shhh, it wasn't... you should have seen her yesterday, she was so worried about you... so I promise you that she called you daddy today because she wanted to."

The emotions in his eyes make them even more intense than normal and I smile while I use one of my thumbs to stroke his bottom lip:

"Now, did I tell you today how handsome I think you are..."

(... A week later...)

"What do you think about that, Ari?"

Her cute serious face shows us she is thinking about it and I feel I am holding my breath. She looks at me and then at Justin, who smiles at her like a proud grandfather does.

"I would like that..."

Her smile is sweet and I take in a sharp breath while I grab her little hand in mine:

"You know what this means Ari... right?"

"Yes... it means that I now have two daddies... for real..."

I nod and smile at Justin who seems slightly emotional while he listens to her summary of what we just tried to explain to her. I look at my daughter and continue:

"Ari... we have to keep this a secret OK? Just until Wednesday because then it is Sonny's birthday and this is his present..."

"Daddy..."

"Yeah."

"No... you said Sonny, but now it is Daddy... Daddy's birthday."

"Right, I'm sorry... but let's keep it a secret... can you do that..."

"OK, but I get to tell him... with breakfast..."

I am happy to agree to that and stand up to shake Justin's hand. Instead he pulls me in for a fatherly hug and says:

"I'll make sure you have the papers Tuesday evening, so he can sign them Wednesday... at breakfast..."

(... Sonny's birthday...)

The sun comes up early and I find myself waking up at 5.30 am. I try to move but realise I am covered in a human blanket. Sonny is draped over me and his steady breathing tells me he is still asleep. I lock my arms around his waist and enjoy the warm snugly feeling of being so close to him. Unconsciously I softly stroke his naked back with my fingertips and after a while he stirs. While he wakes up he rolls next to me, where he nestles himself against my side, resting his head on my chest.

"Morning gorgeous..."

"Morning birthday boy..."

I feel him smile against my skin and I just pull him a little bit closer. He sighs contently while he drapes one leg over me so I am pinned to the bed. We hear a door open and we both know it is Ari. Suddenly I remember how she asked me to make breakfast for Sonny this morning, so I whisper quickly:

"Pretend you're asleep babe... don't ruin it. "

Our bedroom door opens just a little bit and we hear her soft whispering voice:

"Daddy... daddy wake up..."

Sonny pretends to be asleep while he stirs and rolls away from me so I can actually get up. On my tippy toes I walk out of the room while Ari keeps whispering:

"Be quiet daddy, you are going to wake him up..."

Moments later we are making toast and Ari insists on hot chocolate. While we are working on the perfect breakfast she suddenly asks:

"I can tell him... right dad?"

"You definitely can tell him... I am just going to get the papers he can sign..."

"Daddy?

"Yes honey?"

"I told my teacher at school because I was so happy... and I told her about these papers and we made this together..."

In her little hand she is holding a pen with a little ribbon around it. I smile softly and take the pen so I can put it on top of the papers. Then I lean over and kiss her in her hair:

"You are my sweet baby girl..."

"OK... we're ready..."

I pick up the tray and gesture with my head for Ari to pick up the papers and the wrapped pen. Together we walk to the bedroom and without hesitation Ari opens the door and starts singing 'happy birthday'. I join in and smile at Sonny who seems to have fallen asleep again and is now trying to wake up as quick as he can. His perfect dark hair is pointing into all directions and his blue shirt makes him even more gorgeous. Ari jumps on the bed while we finish our song, and Sonny slowly sits up against the headboard.

"You guys made me breakfast?"

"We did... and this..."

She suddenly seems a bit unsure of how to do this so she just hands him the papers and the pen, while her big blue eyes are transfixed on his face.

"That's a lovely pen honey... thank you..."

"No... not the pen..."

Her little finger points at the papers while she sits down next to him so she can lean into him. I put down the tray and sit down opposite Sonny so I can see his face while he reads the papers. I have never seen him like this, he looks like he wants to cry, laugh and scream at the same time. He reads it again, and again, and again, while the papers make a soft ruffling noise from his shaking hands. I just sit there and look at him, completely in love with the man that makes me happy every single minute of the day. From the first time I shook his hand, until this very morning he has been there for me. And I know this is the one thing he really wants, but also the one thing he thought he could never really have. Ari is the one to break the silence:

"Aren't you happy?"

I suddenly see how scared she looks and luckily Sonny comes back to his senses. He lifts her up and puts her in his lap, while the papers slide to the side. A tear falls down his cheek, but he doesn't even take the time to wipe it away:

"Happy? Sweet pea... I am more than just happy..."

"Really?"

"I promise..."

He sticks out his picky and they picky swear with serious faces while I try to keep myself together. Sonny's face becomes all kinds of soft when he leans towards her and asks:

"Are you sure you want this too, honey? Do you want me to be your daddy...?"

She frowns while she answers:

"Of course I do... and you already are my daddy, but now it's for real... now I can always call you daddy..."

I lean forward and hold up the papers and the pen:

"You have to sign though..."

He flashes me the most beautiful smile and then he grabs the papers and quickly signs them all. Then he hands them back to me and kisses Ari on her cheek:

"I love you honey... Now let's have a look at that breakfast..."

And after we all have had enough to eat, Ari leaves to play with her dolls. After she left I crawl over to Sonny and curl up against his side. His arms curl around me and I sigh deeply:

"I am so happy..."

I feel his lips in my hair and when he whispers I know he is all emotional:

"I love you Will, and I love little Ari... thank you, thank you so much..."

I look up and softly wipe a lonely tear away from his cheek:

"No baby, thank you... thank you for making us a family..."

We kiss softly and tenderly, and I let my hands go through his hair while his hand rests on my hip. The phone rings and before we can get up to pick it up, we hear Ari speaking, and her one-sided conversation with who-ever is on the line makes us the two happiest man in the planet:

"Hello..."

"Yes... me and daddy made him breakfast..."

"He did like it..."

"Of course we gave him a present..."

"We gave him papers that makes him my daddy, so now I have two daddy's."

"I know... but if they're both in the same room I can call him daddy Sonny or something..."

"Thanks... bye."

And before we know it she walks back into our room and while she walks over to Sonny and kisses his cheek she says:

"Daddy, that was grammy Sami and she said to give you a happy birthday kiss."

"Thank you."

Then she leans over and kisses his cheek again and then she leans towards me to kiss mine. And while she walks away she says:

"I love you, daddies..."

Thank you for reading... I look forward to hear what you think of it...