"Do you think he'd see a professional?" Alexis asked as she put the legal pad back into her case. Ric sat up and leaned forward on his desk.

"Zander? Are you kidding? No, I'd say a shrink is not something Zander would do willingly." Rick chuckled. "Besides, he's not on trial here, Sonny is." he added and got up from his seat.

"Okay, you're right. He wouldn't go willingly, but he needs to talk with someone, Ric. He's very angry and ..."

"And what, Alexis? I can certainly understand why Zander's angry! Hell, I'm angry about it .. remember, this was my mother too! But I'm handling it alot better then Zander is. I didn't witness the killing of Frank or hear it first hand what happened, and of course I'm not the child of a rape! But taking into consideration all that boy has been through over the past 15 years and more importantly over the last few days, he's doing considerably well."

Alexis could see that Ric was getting more agitated the longer she stayed and tried to convince him otherwise about his brother, so she decided to take her thoughts and her case elsewhere.

"If you need anything else, I'll be in my office." she said as she headed out the door.

After Alexis left the room, Ric's knees buckled underneath him and he fell into the chair. He had heard Zander's story, but he didn't really listen and once he did, it finally sank in that what had happened to Zander's mother, had happened to his. He was too busy trying to build a case against Sonny to realize what Sonny had done, he had done to his mother. Ric was 12 at the time, and didn't live with his mother and her new family. He had been enrolled in boarding school and spent most of his time away from home. He only came home to visit during the summer.

Ric sat alone in his office and stared at his surroundings. He had worked so hard to get where he was, his mother made the sacrifices any other mother would make for her child, a good life, a good school, all the love she could give him and for someone like Sonny Corinthos to strip that from her was inconceivable, it didn't seem real. As he sat alone, he could feel his eyes fill with tears, he couldn't imagine what Zander was going through.

He was startled by a knock on the door, and he quickly wiped his eyes dry with his hands, hoping that no one saw him crying in the dark. He composed himself and got up from his seat. "Yeah, what is it?" he asked as he approached his visitor.

"I just thought you'd like to see this, sir." the young intern said as he handed Ric a manila colored folder. Ric thanked him for bringing the information to him and closed the door. He went to take a seat behind his desk and opened the folder to read what it had to say.

He read over the papers inside and slammed down his fist on his desk in disgust. "Dammit!" he shouted to an empty room. "He's not going to get away with this! Sonny Corinthos is not getting off this easy!" Ric got up from his seat and stormed out of his office. Ric was on a mission and he wouldn't rest until he saw Sonny Corinthos behind bars, and no one was going to get in his way to put him there.

Ric walked into the squad room with a purpose, the folder in his hand. He slammed down the folder on the desk of an unexpecting police officer. As he did, Mac came out from the interrogation room wondering what was going on in his squad room.

"What is going on out here?!" Mac asked as he approached Ric was obviously upset about something.

"You tell me that Sonny isn't walking out of here tonight, Mac?! Give me something we can hold him on!" Mac hung his head. He knew Ric wanted Sonny so bad he could taste it, but Mac didn't have enough evidence to hold him this time.

"I'm sorry Ric, we don't have anything but Zander's word for it. The other evidence got thrown out, loopholes from the previous investigation." Mac replied somberly. He wanted as much as Ric did to get Sonny for killing Frank, but screw ups in the previous investigation prevented some evidence to be presented to the court, and without it, they had nothing to charge Sonny with.

Mac and Ric stood together as Sonny emerged from the interrogation room. "Can we remove the cuffs now?" Sonny's attorney said as she stood beside her client.

"Spencer, remove the cuffs." Mac ordered.

Lucky hesitated. "Now, Spencer." Mac ordered again. "Yes sir." Lucky did as he was ordered to and released Sonny's wrists from the cuffs.

As Sonny walked past Ric, he smirked and said smugly .... "Better luck next time, counselor."

Ric's angered eyes followed Sonny towards the door. It took everything he had inside him not to grab Sonny but he left him go. He would have his day with Sonny and when he did, he'd be sure no one would be witness to it.

Ric muttered to himself .... "Don't you worry, Sonny .... next time will be here sooner then you know."