Chapter 4

Sonny, after receiving the call from the men who had gone with Jason, could feel it coming. The darkness, the breakdown. His mind was going to shatter and he was powerless to stop it. All he could do was lock himself away to spare his family this one. He locked his living room doors and started drinking his expensive rum, straight from the bottle. When he finished the bottle, he threw it into his stone fireplace. And was so satisfied with the crash, he didn't stop until every piece of glass and crystal in the room had shattered. He took out his gun and shot out every window.

Max and Milo, heard the ominous sounds coming from the living room and called Jason only to receive his voicemail. They next called Carly whose phone also went directly to voicemail. Finally, Max reached Dante just after he had arrived at the location of the shooting and had been told the victim's identity. Frantic, Max explained what was happening in the other room. Dante immediately knew one of Sonny's men had already informed his father of his number two's fate. Obviously, Max and Milo were unaware of the events on the docks. Sonny always reserved his two most trusted bodyguards for his most delicate assignments which would currently be Kate/Connie. Dante walked away from the crush of detectives, crime scene investigators, EMT's and reporters to quickly fill Max in on what had happened. He asked him to tell him exactly what his father's present condition was and instructed him to do whatever was necessary to keep Sonny from harming himself or anyone else.

Dante learned John McBain had gone to inform Sam Morgan of her husband's death and Anna Devane had driven out to the Quartermaine estate to tell Monica her last living child had been killed. Dante knew Michael had to be told before he saw it on the news but he couldn't reach Carly. Dante didn't think he should be the one to tell Michael of his beloved father figure's death, and obviously Sonny was in no condition right now. He finally reached Carly's assistant at the hotel who couldn't reach her either but had heard her mention meeting her attorney at the police station.

An hour later, Dante found himself in an even bigger mess. After finding Carly and Diane Miller in the interrogation room with Todd Manning, he had told her. Now she sat at his desk half out of her mind rocking back in forth, crying and demanding to go to the crime scene. Carly insisted,

"To see Jason, that Jason couldn't be alone. Sam couldn't go now because of the baby."

Dante's intent had been for them to break the awful news to Michael, but Michael currently didn't have a completely sane parent.

On top of everything, Diane Miller had just informed him that she and the District Attorney had reached a deal in the Todd Manning case. In two hours, Manning would go before a judge for approval and immediate release. Oh, and he would be issuing an arrest warrant for John Zacchara and commitment paperwork for Constanza Zacchara.

While Diane and Dante discussed Todd's case, Carly stood up and marched out of the station. She got into her car and drove to the pier. She WAS going to be with Jason. She WAS going to make sure he wasn't alone. Carly, knew he was really gone, she felt it, bone deep. It felt as though she had lost a part of herself, an appendage. She felt cold, she didn't remember ever feeling colder. It wasn't that cool yet, and there was no wind. Still she shivered in her black dress. Warm hands touched her shoulders as she looked into Sonny's eyes. Dante had Sonny's eyes, had that ever really registered before? Sonny! She was so mad at him, this was his fault, if he were standing before her, she would have ripped him apart with her bare hands. There had been times she had been infuriated with him over the years but had she ever wanted real harm to come to him? No, not until this night. She wanted him in this harbor with Jason. Why should he be cozy and warm and barking orders to his men and romancing yet another brunette, when Jason was dead on an order from Sonny? She felt Dante lead her away after Anna told her they had to drag the harbor for him. It seemed like seconds later they were in front of Sonny's estate.

Dante had finally been able get Carly to leave the pier where the shooting had taken place. She had wanted to stay and accompany his body to the morgue. She didn't want her best friend to be alone. It finally registered that he wasn't there when Anna told her they had to drag the harbor and it could be hours or days before they recovered Jason. Dante needed Carly, he needed her to help him tell Michael and to handle Sonny. Sonny's compound was on lock down following the shooting. A dozen of his men patrolled the grounds. Dante, walked around the car and helped Carly out. He had become less and less sure this was a good idea the closer he got to his father's home. Carly seemed to be barely conscious. Could she really help Sonny? Tell Michael? Max and Milo were pacing the foyer when Dante walked in with Carly. Max quickly summed up the situation,

"He won't open the door. We can't get in from the back. He has shot out all of the windows and every time we try to come through he points his gun at us and promises to shoot."

"Ok, who is his therapist now?" Dante asked, unsure since Dr. Keenan's death.

"Dr. Sawyer," Carly interjected.

"Max, call Dr. Sawyer." Dante suggested, with his eyes on Carly too.

He took out his service revolver and shot the door open, assuming Sonny was less likely to take a shot at him than one of his men, even though he had shot him in the chest point blank. The blast must have shocked Sonny, because he simply looked up in surprise and half heartedly pointed his gun in Dante's direction. He lowered it and stared off into space. Carly rushed past Dante to reach Sonny. She had picked up a large broken off section of the crystal base to one of Sonny's lamps and swung it at him. With all of her strength. She wanted him to hurt, to bleed, to die. Dante saw out of the corner of his eye an object coming down towards his father. He had a half second to react. He reached out and deflected the heavy object Carly had intended to hit Sonny with. It simply grazed his temple, leaving a large bleeding gash.

Carly stood over Sonny, breasts heaving,

"I am glad Dante was here because you aren't worth going to prison over. I thought you deserved to die, you don't. You deserve to live the rest of your miserable life in a room like this, a broken man. Your mind shattered and never repaired. All of those times, that Jason and I picked you up and put you back together are the reason he is dead. If we had left you insane in a penthouse only capable of destroying yourself, only capable of killing yourself, Michael wouldn't have been shot in the head and been in a coma. You couldn't have married that bitch, Claudia who tried to steal my baby girl. Michael wouldn't have gone to prison. Jax's plane wouldn't have gone down, he would still be in town and at least be a co parent to Joss. And JASON WOULD BE ALIVE." She screamed at him pure hatred seeping from every pore.

She turned on her heal and walked out of Sonny's house for the last time. Her confrontation with Sonny seemingly the trigger that snapped her back to reality. She knew she had been out of her mind for a couple of hours but she was back now. Not whole, but well on her way. She just needed to grieve him alone, her way, before facing their families. She asked Milo to drive her to the Metro Court. She couldn't let Joss see her in this state. She didn't want to scare her perceptive little girl. She needed to pull herself together before seeing any of her children.

After checking with her desk manager, it was determined there were only two suites vacant. One was next to Todd Manning's. She took that one assuming he was still in jail. She didn't want to distrub any of her guests. She headed upstairs and after closing the door, decided maybe Todd and Sonny were onto something. She picked the crystal water pitcher up off of the desk and flung it at the nearest wall. Then proceeded to smash most of the glassware in the sitting room. It was hers and she needed the release. She was mad, mad at Sonny, mad at God, mad at herself and Sam for not pushing him to get out and stay out of the business. She was mad that someone was incessantly knocking at the door. AND THEY WOULDN'T STOP. She jerked open the door ready to fire whomever had intruded. The emotions that surged through her at the sight of him were so powerful and confusing she almost collapsed for the second time today.

Todd Manning stepped into a room whose destruction impressed even him and grabbed her to him. He knew what Jason Morgan had meant to her, even if he didn't understand it. He physically ached seeing her in this much pain.

She clung to him. Her wet, red rimmed eyes held his gaze. She wanted his warmth, she slowly unbuttoned another two buttons on his crisp dress shirt. She laid her head in the opening right there on the warm skin at the junction of his throat and chest. Carly felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat and started counting when she reached ten, it hit her again like a sledgehammer. She remembered again. Jason. Dozens of times, Jason asking her to calm down and count to ten. Carly, looked up at Todd and matter of factly stated,

"I want you to take me to bed, NOW!"