Chapter 4

The grey skirt suit that Kate had picked out of her closet for the wedding was far more demure than the red gown she had worn last time she had wed Stefano. Last time it had been all about the show of it for him. She had complied. This time she was not sure what it was about but it was not going to be long until she worked it out, if she had her way.

Arriving outside the registry office, she saw that Stefano was already there waiting for her, in a tux. In fact she thought it was the one he had worn the last time they had got married.

She hoped he was not growing sentimental. That would not be a good thing for a man of his temperament.

And it would make him not only cruel, but worse… dull.

No doubt if the two of them were doing this on a more official basis then he would have asked one of his two sons to be his best man, but as it was there was just two of his men by his side, no doubt there to serve as witnesses to the boss' wedding.

In his hands, he had a bouquet of roses. Red ones.

"For me? You shouldn't have," she said dryly as she walked over to him. And he really shouldn't have had.

"Yes – yes," he nodded as he passed them to her. His eyes lit up as he saw her, and once more she felt her stomach do something that was not very comfortable.

No matter.

"Sweetheart, you look beautiful."

"Thank you," she nodded. But there was a sincerity to her voice in that moment. No matter what she thought of him, he had done a good deed for her that day. It brought him – one brownie point? Maybe. "And thank you so much, for what you did for Will. I am not going to forget it."

"William is family," he said as if the two of them had never split.

She nodded. "All the same."

He returned the gesture and took the seat by his side.

"I thought the two of us might go to Chez Rough tonight, Katherine. Celebrate our reconciliation."

The glance she threw him said it all. They were remarrying but she was recoiled to nothing of what he had done and he should not be such a fool to think that she was.

"As you wish."

X x x

"You said that you were trying to defend my rights," said Gabi as she sat in the side room, still at the court house.

More than once her brother had tried to get her to leave and to go home with him but so far he had not succeeded. It was as if she stayed there then maybe there would be – something.

Something to change what had happened, that meant that at the end of that day she was going to be the one who go to tuck her baby into bed that night.

But in her heart she knew that no help was coming.

All she could do was look back over the mistakes she had made and felt sick. If only she had done to the police that night when Nick had tried to – then maybe none of this would have happened.

Yet she was unable to go back and changed the past.

"And that is what the two of us are going to do," Nick said and she begun to wonder if he could hear how delusional he sounded.

She could.

The court had made its ruling and it had said that Sonny and Will were going to be raising Ari. They were the ones who got to see her first smile of the day. They were going to be the ones who chose what outfit she was going to wear. They were going to be the ones who got to kiss her goodbye knowing that they separation was going to be no more than a matter of hours… for her it was always going to be at least a night.

She could see her at weekends… every other weekend. That was it. That was all of it and it broke her heart.

They had gone already – she had seen them go. Will, being the Will that he was, had tried to pull her aside and let her cuddle Ari before Nick had pulled her away (don't torture her, he had said – but she had been able to see in the eyes of her best friend that was not what he had been trying to do. He would never ever do that - all he had tried to do was give her a little comfort), she supposed so that the two of them could begin planning their next move.

But that was not what she wanted to do.

All she wanted to do was go and have a nap. Sleep, cuddle her child and sleep…

"We're going to appeal."

"Haven't you done enough?" the words slipped out of her mouth before she was able to censor that.

The ice cold stared which fixated on her reminded her of who she was, what could happen and who had the power.

She looked to the floor.

X x x

"And this little piggy went, wee, wee, wee… all the way home," said Will as he lay on the floor next to Arianna, playing with her toes, tickling her belly.

Lunch at the pub with his mother and his father and EJ had been nice. He and Sonny had paid as a way of saying thank you to them for standing by them when he had needed them the very most. Marlena too had come down and explained the only reason she had not been there at the court that morning was because she had had an emergency call, but she had was ever been there with them in spirit.

He didn't mind. All was well that ended well as far as he was concerned.

What had been even nicer than being with every one though, had been the moment when he and Sonny had said goodbye and been able to take their baby home and shut the door.

God knows what had happened for everything to turn about the way that it did.

He was simply so grateful.

"And she is. She is home," said Sonny as he came and sat by the two of them. Will's heart only soared further as he saw the way Ari's eyes lit up when she saw him.

That was the way a baby girl looked at her daddy and no one would ever be able to tell him any different. "I just – everything looked so black when we got her back here last night and now – now the three of us can start planning a life together… without fear."

"Except that we can beat our bottom dollar that Nick is going to protest the decision."

"Well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I just want to have a nice evening in with the two of you… though I do wonder if I should ring Gabi."

He knew that the joy they felt was going to be nothing compared to the despair which the girl he had once called his very best friend was feeling right then. Just the thought of what she going through had made him feel sick when it had been a mere thought.

"Do it in the morning. She needs a little time to – I don't know - Get used to it? Acclimatise?"

Will knew just from the way that Sonny said those words he knew neither of them were right. When you were a parent you did not get used to being without your child. You fought for them tooth and nail until you got them back. And for all the mistakes she had made when it came to Nick, Gabi was a good mother.

She doted on Ari.

Will shook her head. He felt for her. He really did. He had never ever wanted it to come to this. Not for them.

And the last thing he wanted was for Ari to miss Gabi, which she was inevitably now going to do.

The baby, having been laying on her back as her father tickled her, rolled over and crawled to her step father, using his shirt to hike herself up before snuggling into him.

Sonny laughed, kissing his affectionate baby on top of her head.

"What do you think was that evidence that came to light?" he asked at last. Even though it did not matter for it had brought about all the right results…

"I don't know," Will admitted. He wished he did. He had a strange feeling that someone in his family had said or done something. It would not be the first time and god only knew he was powerfully connected in that town.

Had he known what was going on then he was absolutely positive that he would have tried to put a stop to it. Too many times had the members of his family tried to help him but ended up making things worse.

But this time some angel of mercy had pulled through for them and he was not going to mock that.

Mainly because he couldn't. "I am just so glad it did."

"So am I," Sonny nodded, looking back at the girl in his arms who beaned up at him, her hair sticking up at the back from where she had been playing with her daddy. "Look at our life. Look at how lucky we are." Sonny said without thinking.

He turned back to his husband just in time to see a tear of relief fall on to his cheek. Will brushed it away but came closer as Sonny beckoned him.

Then, with Arianna wedged between them, they just cuddled for a bit.

Home, safe and most importantly, together.

X x x

"To you, my love," Stefano toasted as he and Kate share a glass of champagne.

"To my family's safety," she returned.

She did not think she was ever going to be able to raise a glass to the two of them, but she was always going to be able to when she thought of the court proceedings which had taken place that day.

"Salute."

She nodded. And then there was a silence.

The problem was, she feared, this was a silence which was going to span the very course of their marriage. She had come to him for help with Will.

She had nothing else to say to him.

After everything the two of them had gone through she had sworn she was never going to have anything to say to him ever again. But mother nature, the universe… it was all a bitch. And what it gave with one had it took with the other.

She had traded Arianna's freedom for her own. A good swap.

Still, one that meant she was going to need a good amount of the rather expensive champagne. Especially when she had to go back to the mansion and be a bride to her groom…

"Katherine, I – I want you to know, I am going to be a very different kind of husband this time around."

She looked at him coldly and wondered what on earth that meant. In part, it scared her that she had thought he had needed to clarify that of all things.

"Well, this should be interesting because I think it would be impossible for you to have been a worst one."

He smiled, obviously taking her deadly serious one tone out of context and thinking that she was teasing him. She wasn't.

She really wasn't.

"Was it all that bad?"

"I do not want to talk about it."

He nodded.

"Very well. I just want you to know that – I, I am not going to try to control you, Katherine. You must do as you will. You are my wife, that is enough."

For the first time since the two of them had sat down to dinner together, she felt that he had aroused her interest. She certainly wanted to know what he had meant by that comment.

"'I must do as I will'. That rather sounds as if you are not going to try to control me, my dear and we both know that you will. It is who you are, it is probably in your very DNA. We both know it is not going to be long before you started dictating what I do or who I -"

"No," he shook his head. "That is not going to happen. You will not divorce me and you will live at the mansion. The rest of it is up to you."

"And if it is my will to go out and be another's? Say I want to go and see my very good friend Rafe?" she asked. As soon as she had said the words she wished she was able to take them back. Not for her own sake but for Rafe's. The last thing that she wanted was for him to be on – on her husband's radar. The two of them were over now and with her being a married women and Jordan around… it was not as if the two of them were ever likely to be anything more.

Her husband… that was going to take a lot of getting used too. Especially considering that it was the last thing that she wanted to get used too.

He did not met her eye but he nodded. "As I said, Katherine. You must do as you will."

And then for the first time in how long she was not sure – he made her smile. Truly. Because she knew for sure, more than ever before, that there was an end game here. This was a scheme, she was sure as grand as any scheme of his had ever been.

All she had to do was figure out what it was.

Once more, she sipped her champagne. Life with Stefano was so many things: but dull or boring? Never.

And that was a small mercy.

X x x

For the first time in a while, Sonny found he could breathe easy. The evening was lovely. They ordered pizza so that neither of them had to bother cooking and spent the time they would (and probably should) have been using to catch up with their chores just playing with their little girl.

Ari had some spaghetti hoops for dinner and then Will bathed her, which was when Sonny took the opportunity to pop out and get a nice bottle of wine. They needed to celebrate and once they had got Arianna to bed, he made no plans to be coy about the fact he wanted very much to get Will to bed.

Their worries and concerns had kept the two of them apart and he wanted to close that gap. The bottom line was he simply wanted his husband so much.

However, just as every cloud had a silver line in, in every blue sky flew a crow. As he crossed the town square, he met Nick.

"She is distraught you know," he said to him as they came face to face.

Sonny shrugged. "Will isn't."

"This isn't over – don't get too comfortab-"

"Have you not learnt your lesson?" Sonny asked as the serene mood which he had been was spoiled, he hoped not irreparably. "Do not ever threaten my family. Do not dare threaten to separate the three of us ever again."

"Funny, because with one little word to the police that is just what I could do."

"Wouldn't that be convenient? You remembering just after Will got custody?"

"It would be if I did not have photographic proof."

"Wow," Sonny sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You are really, really boring me now. And I have to get back so you know what, I am just going to be on my way. See you later –"

"I say when you – " Nick begun, as he started to block him.

"You don't tell me to do anything. Goodnight Nick."

Had it just been that then he had a feeling he could have kept his mouth shut when he had got home to Will. But when on his way part Chez Rouge, when he saw Kate with Stefano, getting in to his car no less, he knew he couldn't.

It was official.

The world had gone mad.

Please review!