Dante's POV

Now, Dante's tears were running down Morgan's neck the way Sonny's tears had run down Dante's earlier. He hadn't meant to break down; hell, it would probably do more harm than good to Morgan—but somehow, the enormous relief he had felt when Morgan said his name not once, but twice, made his tear ducts work on their own agenda. Sonny's voice floated to mind: "You never know what's going to happen next!", and Dante gave a watery chuckle.

"What?" Morgan whispered. Dante and Sonny released him simultaneously, which allowed Morgan to shoot his older brother a quizzical, albeit slightly unfocused, look. Dante shrugged with a slight smile and then shook his head. For a moment, Morgan looked ready to protest. Then, some thought or memory made his face crumple. "Jax…is Jax really…?" He turned his pleading gaze on Sonny, but Sonny nodded reluctantly with a pained glance at his older son.

"It's all my fault! I didn't mean for it to happen! I made him take me to the boat even though Mom said no! I didn't know—I didn't mean for Jax to—" Morgan's wails were punctuated with helpless sobs. Dante reached out to pull his little brother into a hug, but their father beat him to it. Sonny cradled Morgan in his arms and brushed kiss after kiss onto Morgan's forehead. The gentle words Sonny whispered to Morgan reminded Dante of Olivia's lullabies when he was a baby, and Dante realized that maybe he wasn't needed here right now.

After rubbing Morgan's back one more time and squeezing Sonny's shoulder, Dante climbed to his feet shakily and slipped out of the room. His mother and his girlfriend were both waiting there anxiously. Dante managed to croak, "He's awake," before his tears spilled over again. Olivia gasped and pulled him into a tight embrace; for the first time in years, Dante found himself crying into his mother's shoulder. As usual, Olivia didn't complain. She just rubbed her son's back and murmured the same gentle words that Sonny had been using to hush Morgan.

After a moment, Dante lifted his head and tried to scrub his tears away. Olivia smiled and caught a stray one with her thumb. "He'll be okay. Will you?"

Dante considered this for a moment. He was exhausted beyond sleep, it felt like someone was using a jackhammer on his head, and crying had made him inordinately sick and shaky. At the moment, no, he didn't feel as though he would ever be okay again.

Then again…the memory of wrapping his hand around Sonny's resurfaced. For some reason, as he had done it, his mind had conjured an impossible fantasy of himself at four, clinging to his father's hand as they crossed the street to the park in Bensonhurst. Something inexplicable had changed between himself and his father; somehow, Morgan's coma and Stone had made Dante finally understand Sonny in a way that nothing else had.

"He was my brother!"

The thought of Sonny's ravaged face as he recounted Stone's death, melded with the image of Morgan trapped in a hospital bed, made Dante shiver imperceptibly. Oh, yeah, he and Sonny had reached an understanding.

"Dante?"

His mother's troubled voice snapped Dante back to reality. Belatedly, he realized that she had posed a question. After a moment, he shrugged and flashed a cheap smile at Olivia. "Maybe. Yeah, I'll be okay. Hey, listen, I should probably go tell Carly and Michael that Morgan's awake."

Lulu gasped and grabbed Dante's hand. "Oh, my God, I am such an idiot! I'm terrible! Why didn't I think of that—ugh! Come on."

"It's okay, babe, you're not an idiot," Dante protested as he nearly had his arm ripped out of its socket. "Relax, Lulu! Everything will be okay now."

At this, Lulu whirled to face him. Dante almost took a step back at the fire in Lulu's blue eyes. "How?" she demanded. "How do you know?"

Dante shrugged helplessly. "A guy can hope, right? Come on, there's no point in worrying."

"But Morgan—"

"Hey." Dante laid one finger against Lulu's lips. "I didn't say there wasn't anything to worry about. I said that there's no point in worrying. It's not going to help Morgan or Carly, right?"

"Right. I'm sorry. I just—"

"You don't have to apologize." Dante leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss against Lulu's lips. For a moment, they stood there in the hallway with their foreheads barely touching. Dante felt intoxicated, dizzy from even the quick kiss they had shared, and he just wanted to stand there with Lulu forever. Then he thought of Morgan and Carly and, inexplicably, Sonny, and knew he had a duty to them first. "Where's Carly?"

Lulu made a wistful sort of sigh. "Down this way. Jason's with her." Dante nodded and let the girl he loved lead him down the hall.

"Be careful," Lulu warned as she paused just outside the door to another hospital room. "Carly is really…well…just be careful what you say."

Dante frowned in bewilderment. "Of course. What did you think...uh, Lu—"

The door swung open, and suddenly Jason was staring down at both of them with unreadable blue eyes. Instinctively, Dante's spine straightened under the incomprehensible gaze. Why the hell can't he show emotions for once in his life? At least for Morgan's sake—

"What happened? Is Morgan okay?" Suddenly, Dante was being shaken none-too-gently by a panicked Jason. Jason's voice was hoarse with trepidation as he growled, "Tell me, Dante!"

"Listen, I named you for the two bravest guys I know: Jason and—and Stone…"

Even Jason's scared. Damn, damn, who would've thought—he's scared!

Dante shook off the unnerving thought and met Jason's terrified gaze. "Morgan woke up."

"Wha—he's—are you sure?"

"Positive. I was there. He's talking and everything."

Slowly, Jason loosened his grip on Dante's shirt. The cop took a relieved step back. "He's going to be okay? Oh…that's…that's…" The enforcer's face was relaxing into some form of wonder. "Carly. Carly!"

The blonde jerked awake and vaulted out of the hospital bed. "Jase, what?" she demanded. "What happened, Jason?"

Jason stumbled to Carly and gazed down at her. For a moment, he simply stood there, shaking, seemingly unable to form any coherent thoughts. Then, as Carly's stare became more and more alarmed, a grin broke over Jason's face. "He's awake. Morgan woke up."

Carly's mouth dropped open. "Oh, my—my baby, Morgan, oh my God, Jason!"

"I know!" Jason's smile grew even wider as Carly threw her arms around him. Both of them rocked together for a moment, half-laughing, half-crying; then, Carly pulled back with a frown.

"Who's with him?"

"Dad." The word fell from Dante's lips before he even realized he was speaking. Carly whirled to face him; her frown deepened by the second. "Morgan already knows about Jax, Carly. It's the first thing he asked about when he woke up."

Carly's face twisted. "And you told him?"

As Carly glared, Dante shot Lulu a confused glance. "Ah—he already knew, Carly. Sonny and I didn't tell Morgan anything." When Carly's eyes flashed dangerous, Dante quickly added, "Listen, when I woke up in the hospital, all I wanted was my mom…"

That was all it took for Carly to fly out the door without as much as a backwards glance at Dante. After a split second's indecision, Lulu made an impatient sound under her breath and darted after her cousin, leaving Dante and Jason alone in the blank white room. Dante ran a hand through his hair with a shaky sigh. That did not go according to plan.

"Dante." Jason's voice was rough; he ran a hand over his eyes and tried again. "What would you do for Morgan?"

The question was so out of left field that Dante literally jumped. With a frown, he turned to face Jason again. The mobster's face had an unusually earnest cast to it. "Ah—anything. Wha—what the hell-"

"Die? Kill?" When Dante nodded bemusedly, Jason sighed and sat down in a free chair. "Carly just lost custody of all her kids."

Dante's eyes widened. "Wha—why? Because of her breakdown?" When Jason nodded, Dante collapsed onto the edge of the hospital bed. "But—Jax is dead. Sonny gave up his rights. What—you got custody of them now?"

"No!" The word was edged with fear. Jason cracked his knuckles and shook his head emphatically. "My life was my choice, Dante, but it's not something I would choose for anyone else, especially not the kids! They'd be in danger every minute with me. I can't do that to them."

Dante found himself shaking his head. "Then where will Morgan go? What about Josslyn? They can't—They'll get shoved into foster care!" "…he ended up in the system…on the streets…" "You can't think that's better than them living with you. Hell, even I don't think that!"

"My life—Sonny's life—Michael paid for it with a year of his life!"

"Uncle Stone was in the system, and he paid for it with his whole life!" Suddenly, Dante was on his feet. Rage was making adrenaline pour through his system; he was shaking with fury as he hadn't shaken in ages, not since he had punched his father months ago. "I can't let my brother go!"

"Then don't." Jason was eerily calm, though Dante noticed his hands were balled into fists. "Dante, you know what you have to do."

"He's my brother."

Then Dante realized he did know what he had to do. It made his legs go weak and his palms sweat. "I could—I'll take care of him. I'll take care of both of them." Shakily, he swallowed back his fear and collapsed onto the side of the bed again.

Jason's sapphire eyes were wide with surprise. "Both of them? Morgan and Josslyn?"

Hell, why not? "Morgan's my brother. It's the least I can do for him! If he moves in with me—Michael's already crashing at my place—why can't their baby sister live with me, too? Lulu's her godmother, right? It's all legal."

For a moment, Jason seemed frozen in his own disbelief. Then, with a sigh of relief, the enforcer relaxed. "Thank you. Thank you."

Dante snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm doing it for Morgan, not for you."

The words seemed to remind Jason of something. He sat up straight with a frown. "When we were trying to calm Sonny down yesterday, you called him 'Dad'. You said it again when you were talking to Carly." When Dante nodded slowly, Jason continued: "You finally gave up hating him?"

"I guess so. Why do you care, other than the fact he's your boss?"

Jason opened his mouth to explain, closed it, and then shook his head. "It—doesn't matter. Will you let Sonny see his kids?"

"Not all the time." Dante shrugged. "I haven't really had time to come up with some custody schedule, all right? I don't know if I'd let Morgan sleep over at Sonny's, but…" After a minute's consideration, he shrugged again. "Yeah, I'd let Dad see them every once in a while. I mean, I guess I'll see him every so often anyway, so I might as well."

When Jason didn't reply, Dante climbed to his feet and headed to the door. His head was spinning with too many thoughts and fears; he was starting to understand Sonny's claustrophobia. Jason's call of "Wait!" almost went unheeded, but Dante reluctantly turned to face the other man again.

"This isn't going to be easy. Carly hates you, Dante. She's hellbent on getting revenge for Michael going to Pentonville." As Dante began to snap a retort, Jason plowed on, "...and…Morgan's going to need a lot of help. He's going to need his family, Dante."

Dante's jaw squared impatiently at the mobster's troubled expression. "I don't even really know how to explain how close our group was…we were our own little family, y'know?" "I am his family. I'd do anything for him. Morgan's my brother. Don't you know what that means?"

"Stone, God, Morgan..."

Then, without a second thought, Dante rushed down the hall to be with his little brother again.

Dante was, ah, a bit dim this chapter. My excuses are: 1. Dante hasn't slept since Morgan was in the crash a couple days previous, and 2. I have the flu, so my writing's probably reflecting that.

We're down to the home stretch on this story—there'll only be one or two chapters after this. However, this story is actually the beginning of a series called "The Family Stone" that I will post periodically. The stories will generally be the same length as this and will center on Sonny and Dante's relationship and how Stone brings their family together.

Each story's title and chapter titles are based on a certain set of songs (e.g. songs from a certain show or artist). Any ideas as to where I got the chapter titles for this story?