I know the kids ages aren't compatible, but this is AU and I really liked this couple.

Plot and Week#13: Maturation vanish, cruel, demand
Couple: Kristina Corinthos-Davis & Jacob Martin Morgan

Rated: R

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just like writing about them

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Exile

"Do you know what it feels like in this world.
For a girl."

--Madonna

The rain coursing down the glass of the window pane looked like the tears she was unable to shed. The dull grey sky had opened up and began it's downpour while they were at the cemetary drenching everyone and everything with it's wet fury. It should have provided some relief to the sweltering summer humidity choking the city but now all gathered could add sodden clothing to the uncomfortable heat.

Some poor misguided idiot had actually murmured how even the heaven's cried for the dearly departed. When it was probably more accurate to say he was merely making the most of the opportunity to make everyone around him just as miserable as he possibly could before he finally took his place in eternal purgatory.

Kristina Adela Corinthos-Davis was relieved the funeral over. Tired of people giving her sympathic glances of sorrow and pity. Sick of accepting the condolences from people who certainly meant well but had no idea how badly she wanted the service to end.

Michael "Sonny" Corinthos, that cruel, arrogant, selfish, sanctimonious bastard was finally dead and buried. It had been a long time coming, in her opinion.

There were few familiar faces amongst the Port Charles citizens that attended her father's funeral. She had spent the past five years in Florence, Italy and had very little dealings with the anyone here anymore. It didn't help that in the last years of her father's life he had managed to alienate just about everyone who dared care for him.

It didn't start off that way. Alexis might have kept her carefully seperated from Sonny Corinthos, dangerous mob boss, but after she reached a certain age her mother was forced to allow her to make that decision for herself.

From the age of thirteen, she had been a beloved Daddy's Girl who adored her father and thought the world of him. She knew there were things about him that society didn't agree upon, and she certainly understood with all the secrecy and body guards that her father wasn't like the fathers of her friends at her expensive private school.

Her mother was the District Attorney, so she knew her father regularly without remorse or regret broke the law and often got away with it. For a girl with stars in her eyes for the handsome man who showered her with gifts and affection, none of that really mattered.

Then the danger started.

Sacrifices were made.

But all of those things were out of her realm of understanding at the time. Until her brother Michael was caught in the cross fire of a hit intended for her father. Then all bets were off and the streets of Port Charles ran crimson with blood. Michael stayed in a coma for almost six months before finally waking up but he would never be the same. It would take years of physical therapy and rehibilitation before he learned to walk and talk properly.

Her sister Sam and her husband Lucky were always arguing about him putting himself in danger in the dangerous 'mob war.' Sam demanded he stop working the Corinthos/Morgan cases and Lucky would tell her he was a cop and had to do his job.

Daddy Ric wanted her Mom to take her and Molly out of the country until the worst of it all was over. Pride kept them both tied to a city neither of them really had a major connection to, when she understood that neither of them wanted to leave Sonny. As if he were out of their direct line of sight something would happen to him.

Daddy Ric loved Sonny.

Mommy loved Sonny.

And Daddy Ric hated Sonny because his wife wouldn't tear the last piece of love for her father out of her heart.

Then Elizabeth Webber Morgan and Johnny Zacchara were murdered and everything changed.

The next thing she knew she was playing flower girl at the small and bizarre wedding of Jason Morgan to Claudia Zacchara. Yet a desperate peace had been forged, life calmed and everyone was safe.

Until her father ruined it all.

In a desperate need for silence, Kristina escaped to the study of her father's mansion, only to be surrounded by the gilded trappings the man had buried himself in so that he could try to forget an abusive childhood. It was almost as bad as listening to people expounding on Sonny's virtures and generousity.

He liked to toss around words like honor and respect. Loyalty. God help them, if a person dared betray Sonny Corinthos, or at least committed what could be construed as betrayal in his petty narrow-minded self-serviving principles. It was too bad he never applied that moral code of conduct toward himself.

She could feel the beginnings of a migraine coming on.

Sonny had broken that peace making a mockery of everything his best friend and brother had sacrificed to keep them all safe. All because Sonny felt his word was law and they all were expected to obey. Never had she expected it to apply to her.

oo

She could still remember the afternoon Jacob Martin Morgan walked into Kelly's with his older brother Cameron. Cam was all dark smoldering good looks with yum-yum eyes and a wicked smile and being two years older, he was completely sigh worthy to her and all of her friends.

Yet Jake was the blue eyed rebel that made her heart race. Jake never smiled, was extremely quiet and rode a motorcycle. He was the guy girls could never bring home. Her mother would have had a stroke if she dared even glance in Jake's direction. Both brothers attended her high school, were honor students who were always together but never gave girls like her the time of day.

As Sonny's daughter she was firmly off limits.

But that day Jake had turned in her direction and gave a small wave. The small quiet smile curving his mouth had been for her and her alone. Sixteen and it was love at first sight.

oo

"Sonny was such a good man."

The incessant accolade made her sick every time she heard it. Sonny played the role of devoted husband and father and those who were on the outside looking in or were brainwashed by those fucking dimples believed. As one of his children, her mother a one night stand in between an episode of the Carly & Sonny drama, she knew exactly who her father was.

Sonny Corinthos was not a good man.

He was not a good husband.

He was not a good father.

oo

"Kristina Adela Corinthos, I am your father and you will do as I say!"

She flinched as her father in his wildest fury threw a decanter of scotch across the room. It slammed into the patio door causing it and the bottle to shatter to the ground. Tears smeared with black mascara coursed down her cheeks, lipstick a scarlet smear across her face where he had grabbed her and tried to wipe it off. Sheer black fright had her heart slamming against her ribs and she cringed as another bottle joined the first.

The evening had started off perfectly innocent. Jake had picked her up at her mother's house for their date to the Homecoming dance with the promise to have her home by eleven thirty. It had been a trial to get her mother to agree to her dating Jason Morgan's son but Alexis relented realizing how hard Jason worked to keep the peace in the city of Port Charles. Losing his wife and raising two children had impressed upon him how easily death could snatch a loved one away and happiness could simply vanish.

It wasn't easy keeping Sonny and the Zacchara family away from each other's throats, making sure the Five Families weren't afraid they were gaining too much power but it was a tight rope he gladly walked to keep them all safe.

The night was perfect. Jake looked so gorgeous in his dark blue suit and her mother had convinced Jax's wife, Kate, to find her the perfect designer original. A soft flowing silk halter dress with it's airy handkerchief tail and a touch of satin at the the waist in a vivid sapphire.

As Jake slipped the pretty corsage on her wrist, Sam snapped pictures, Molly teased relentlessly and Ric and her mother had looked on smiling. She and Jake had danced all night in each other's arms and she was the envy of many girl who had gaped at the gentle way Jake treated her. Not wanting the night to end, she wanted to show her father her pretty dress and the pictures they had taken at the dance.

But every thing went wrong. Horribly wrong.

"It was just a kiss Daddy," she pleaded, kneeling down to Jake's unconscious form to pull him tight against her breast and protect him from the wild violence swirling in Sonny's eyes.

"No daughter of mine is going to whore herself for a fucking Zacchara!"

oo

Sonny declared war and Anthony Zaccahara was the first victim. Nothing anyone said could convince the man he was being unreasonable. Not even his trusted and best friend Jason.

Who had been one bullet away from killing Sonny for touching his son if it had not been for his wife Claudia, ironically enough. They were free, she had whispered in his ear. Free.

And that was the night Jake stood under her window and told her that his family was leaving Port Charles.

From that day forth, nothing was ever the same. No matter how many promises Sonny Corinthos made, how many pretty words of love and affection he spoke, she would forever remember how vile and horridly he had turned on her and Jake.

oo

"If you go after that trash, Kristina, don't come back. You won't be welcome and you won't be my daughter. If you leave, you'll be dead to me."

Those words had broken her heart but Jake had risked everything to come back to Port Charles for her and the love she had in her heart at sixteen had matured and deeped at eighteen over letters and phone calls and emails longing for more.

"I'm sorry you feel that way Daddy. Mom said it was okay for me to attend college in Italy. I'm going."

oo

And no matter how many times she tried to build some kind of bridge between her and Sonny, he wouldn't budge. She had been subjected to all manner of nasty names and displays of cruelty, until one day Jake asked why she put herself through it all. Sonny was her father, he was supposed to try to mend fences between them and find some understanding. Especially considering he was the one who had broken his word to so many people.

That was the day Daddy Ric became simply Dad.

And her mother was finally free.

"Well this time Daddy, you're dead to me."

oo

"Honey, have you eaten anything?" Kristina looked up at Carly, who had been the smartest of them all and cut Sonny loose forever the day her son was shot. She had left town with her sons to seek the best medical treatment for Michael and stayed in Los Angeles where she met and married a famous movie producer.

A comforting hand rubbed over her shoulder, and she briefly gave in to the support, leaning her head against her side. Carly looked much like Kristina remembered, tall and smartly dressed in a navy blue suit golden blonde hair pinned in an elegant chignon. She brought Michael and Morgan back for the funeral but they would return to California later on during the week.

It was strange, Sonny's death brought back all the people he had hurt under his roof because they had all been connected through them, the children.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"You know," she smiled softly, "It's okay to forgive him, you know. Sonny was," she paused and sighed, "Difficult. But in his own way, he loved his children as much as he was capable of. I told Michael and Morgan to forgive him for being unable to be the father they needed. Not for Sonny's sake," she frowned and shook her head. "But for their own. It was time to let go of the anger and bitterness, so that we could move on with our lives. And be happy." She finished with another smile.

It would be something she would have to think about and maybe later find closure.

oo

When a pair of strong arms wrapped her waist from behind, she set down the picture frame she had been holding. Looking around, she noticed someone had turned on one of the desk lamps and hours must have gone by because it was night time.

"Are you okay?"

Kristina leaned her cheek against her husbands and drew a deep breath into her lungs. A strong hand took hers, and brought it to his mouth to be brushed tenderly by his lips. "I'm fine."

"How many times have you said that today?"

A light chuckle escaped at how well he knew her but then he always had. "Too many."

"Dad and Claudia are going back to the hotel. They decided to stick around Port Charles for a while longer to catch up with everyone. Last I heard your Mom was having a dinner over at Wyndemere tomorrow. All those Cassadines under one roof. Will you be plotting world domination?"

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "Of course," she turned into his arms and pressed a kiss to his mouth. When he cupped her face and deepened it, slowly, lovingly, with a sweep of his tongue, she allowed him to soothe her. To treasure her, as he did each time they came together.

Finally Jake broke the caress, placing a kiss to her forehead, her eyes and the tip of her nose before tucking her head neatly at his neck. "Did you want to hang here a while longer?"

"No," she wrapped her arms around his waist and allowed her tired soul to melt into his tender care. "I'm done."

Fin