Title: The Road Less Traveled

Author: Christy AKA FallenAngel AKA Girlfearless

Disclaimer: Don't own it! Never will!

He was home, he was angry, and she knew there was nowhere to hide, not really. If momma was home then it would be okay; momma would come and tuck her in and then she and daddy would figure out the problem together. That's what she told herself. Her five-year-old mind had yet to connect the cries and groans of her mother with pain and anguish, not because she wasn't smart, but because it was easier that way. It was easier to think they were doing that thing that adults do when it was night, easier than thinking that he was being mean. That he was hitting momma and making her cry, like he did to her when momma wasn't home.

She shook and pushed herself further back into the closet, maybe this time he wouldn't find her there. Maybe he'd stop looking and just go to sleep…maybe. Just this once.

"Emmy, sweet Emmy, I know you're in here." He stepped into her bedroom, his voice sounded like it was taunting her from every corner of the small closet she was huddle in. She could hear him right in her ears and feel him crawling up her skin, she could taste the blood that would form in her mouth after the first hit and it scared her. She tried, tried with all her might, to stop herself from shaking, but she just wasn't strong enough. It started with her fingers so she twisted them as tightly as she could around her nightgown, then her stomach muscles cramped and she felt like she was gonna be sick, next was her legs and before she knew it, before she could stop it, they were shaking so bad that she could hear them pounding on the floor even over the sounds of his booted feet. Thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump. Before he even had the chance to open the door there were tears running down her chubby cheeks and settling in the corners of her mouth and the crook of her neck.

She felt the whoosh of air as he shoved the closet door open and she could almost feel the hatred radiating off him in waves as he stared down on her shaking body, "I told you I'd find you. I always do. If you weren't so weak and didn't make so much noise you wouldn't have this problem, but you give yourself away every time. Every time."

He reached for her and she pulled back, trying shove herself further into the closet, but they both knew it was a futile effort. The closet was small, it housed little girl's clothes and little girl's toys and he was a man, full grown with long arms that could easily reach to the back to snatch out for her and long legs that could easily kick.

Kicking was the worst. And with that one thought in her mind she crawled out to him. Maybe if she did what he said it would be easier. She knew, by this point, there was no way to escape the beating, but maybe just maybe she could minimize the pain.

As soon as she stood up she saw his foot lift up off the ground and all hope was lost. She didn't feel the boot connect with her stomach, but she felt, right before she passed out, the pain from slamming into the wall radiate from the top of her head, down her neck, and into her toes.

She hadn't learned yet that there was no stopping him, no reasoning with him, and certainly no hiding from him. But soon, too soon, she would learn how to push him, how to anger him, how to take him to his breaking point and when that happened he'd hit harder and leave marks and that, that one terrible last beating, would be her salvation…

He watched her twist, moan, and groan in her sleep and, as a man who had never really been a father and never dealt with the nightmares of his little girl, he had no clue how to respond. He was afraid, maybe most afraid of waking her up and seeing the tears stream down her face, but he couldn't just continue to listen as his little girl—because it was a little girl who cried now, a little girl who curled into the back of her seat, a little girl who groaned—begged for someone to help her.

Even as he reached over to wake her up, she shot up in her seat and stared at him. Through him was more like it, as her eyes never connected with his own, never even really acknowledged his existence. He watched as awareness slowly seeped into her eyes, as her bunched muscles loosened, and as the confusion on her face quickly turned to understanding and then, worst of all, to dismay and shame.

"I, uh, did I say anything...?"

"No."

She blew out a breath and closed her eyes in relief. "Good. I, uh, just have weird dreams sometimes that's all. Always have." She tried to laugh, tried to pretend that he hadn't heard her reliving a horrible memory, but she couldn't.

"Emily…"

"Don't!" She threw her hands up and shook her head. "Just…I can't do this with you. I can't do this with anyone right now, I think that the human mind can only handle so many things at once and this, this might push me overboard so don't ask. Don't give me that sympathetic, worried look. Don't pay extra attention to my sleeping habits and we'll get along just fine."

He shook his head and look down at the leather on the seats. He wanted to agree, wanted to promise that he wouldn't push her further than she was ready to go, but… "I don't think I can make that promise."

"Wha—?" Her mouth dropped and for the first time she looked him in the eyes. "Why?"

He reached out for her hand and then thought better of it when she yanked it back before he even touched her. He should have known better, should have seen that response coming. "I cannot promise you that I won't ask why you shake and cry in your sleep, I will not promise you that I won't worry about your health or watch to be sure you are getting the rest you need; however, I am promising you that I will do my very best not to hurt you more."

Great, just what she needed in her life, another well meaning man. "Listen. I have a father and a big brother, I've also got two overprotective best friends and a concerned…whatever. The last thing I need is another guy to help me try and figure out the mess that is my life so…"

"I don't think this counts as the 'mess that is your life.' I think this counts as something horrible that happened to my daughter when she was too young to protect herself and I have the right to know about it."

"The right to know about it?" She shot him an indignant look, "I don't think you do have the right to know about it. I think you have the right to know whatever the hell I feel like telling you! I didn't want to be here! You made this decision! Sonny made this decision, Jason made this decision, Lucky made this decision! I had no choice in the matter, it was either come with you or be stuck in Port Charles with three of the most important men in my life too pissed at me and too worried about me to do their damn jobs."

"Listen," he rubbed his hand across his forehead and was reminded, once again, that he had no clue how to related to his adult daughter. "I apologize. That was not the right choice of words, I merely wanted to let you know that I am here for you and that I would like to know about you—the good and the bad."

"Fine," she nodded, suitably scolded. "I'm sorry. I just—you're right, I haven't had a lot of sleep lately and I'm a little punchy. I jumped too soon and too far, if you plan on spending much time with me then you'll find that I do that a lot."

"Understood."

Emily nodded and Lorenzo noted that as soon as he said the words her eyes began to dart around the cabin looking for some form of escape.

"Hey. Is there somewhere around here where I can be alone? I promised that I would call Son—I promised I would call a friend once I got settled on the plane. Is that okay?"

"Certainly." He pointed behind her. "There is a small office in the back of the plane, all you have to do is lock the door behind you and anyone who wishes to enter will have to knock. Is that acceptable?"

"Uh, yeah. That's great. Thanks."

She started to get up and move quickly to the back of the cabin, but as her hand touched the door she abruptly turned back around and said, "Really. Thank you for, you know, all of this. I mean I know you get something out of it too, but still you've…understood. More than was really necessary and I'll try to be better, I'm just not sure what the proper procedure is for spending time with your long-lost father."

He slightly inclined his head in her general direction and smiled, "I'm sure we'll both need the next few weeks to learn to deal with each other better. Hopefully, as two adults, we'll succeed."

"Yeah," she turned the knob on the door and stepped in, "hopefully."

After she shut the door on her father she realized that she just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Sure, she'd escaped an uncomfortable situation with Lorenzo Alcazar aka her biological father, but now just was about to put herself in another one with a call to Sonny. She grinned and said to herself, "Well at least I can hang up on Sonny and the conversation will be over."

She hung on to the little bit of sanctuary and dialed his number.

"Corinthos," Sonny smiled down at Bella who was on the floor at his feet playing with Bailey as he worked on shipping logs for Corinthos/Morgan.

"Hey Corinthos, it's Quartermaine."

"Hey Quartermaine," he stood up from his chair and walked into the other room. Emily sounded like she wasn't in a fighting mood, but just in case the tide turned he didn't want his little sister to hear them arguing. "How are you?"

"I'm okay," she figured he could probably hear the lie in her voice, but that was fine with her, she didn't want him thinking she wasn't still pissed at him.

"Really?"

"I fell asleep about five minutes into the trip, I just woke up a few minutes ago, that's why I'm just calling."

He could hear the truth beneath what she was saying. He found, more often than not, that when she woke up quickly after falling asleep then it meant she'd had a nightmare about her dead stepfather. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, you know Alcazar just wanted to do the whole sharing-time thing and I really wasn't into it. I guess I haven't been really into sharing anything with anyone. You know?"

She was throwing him a lifeline; at least he thought she was. This was more, even in vague undertones, than she had ever said to him about her nightmares or how they related to her life today, "You don't want to share with him?"

"No, no, I do. It's just that—Why can't we start smaller you know? Why isn't he asking me my favorite color or what type of music I listen to or something like that?"

Sonny grimaced to himself and sat down at the kitchen table, "Because you didn't have a dream about your favorite color or your favorite type of music."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't mind talking about those things." She picked at her fingernails and started searching around the desk for something to write on. "I mean, what if…never mind."

"No. What if, what?"

"Well, what if Mike asked you about Deke? Would you really want to tell him?"

"No, but Mike left his family by choice, your father didn't know you existed. It's different."

"Yeah," she nodded and started making circles on the stray piece of paper she'd found. "I sort of talked to him about you once."

"Alcazar?"

"No. Mike. It was after you left, around the time he and I were about to become Michael's godparents. He was drunk at the Grille…"

"Figures," Sonny interrupted and shifted in his seat. He was not comfortable with the direction of this conversation, but if her constant stuttering and heaving was any indication, then neither was she.

"Don't be mean. We were waiting for Jason to come pick him up and he started talking about you and Deke and how it was entirely his fault and…I don't want Alcazar to think that. I don't want to make him feel that way."

"Like I made Mike feel?"

"No, no," she damn near tripped over her own sentences trying to correct him. "That's not what I meant. Mike isn't completely wrong for blaming himself and you aren't completely wrong for blaming him, but like you said Alcazar didn't know about me. How could he know that he needed to protect me? Hell, I don't even know what to tell him. I don't remember all of it. Shouldn't I wait till I do; shouldn't I wait until I can give him the whole story before I dump this on him?"

"I don't know, baby." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. How could he give her the right answer when he didn't even have it himself? He wasn't sure who he blamed, other than Deke, for what happened to him, but he knew for sure that he didn't want to talk about it with anyone. "What do you feel?"

"Confused. I feel confused about everything. You, Alcazar, my mom, Nikolai, all these things I've learned. I just feel confused."

"Take me out of the equation, I'll keep. And we're working on Nikolai right now…"

"…and my biological father should be able to give me a little insight on the rest. Is that what you're getting at?"

"Don't be angry."

"How can I not be? You sent me away! I keep trying to rationalize it, I keep trying to understand it, but all I can think is that you sent me away."

"I know," he leaned his head against the phone and blew out a breath. "I don't know what to say to make you understand. Maybe we moved to fast, maybe I moved to fast. I should have given you more time, let you work some of this out before…before…"

"Do you regret it?"

"No!" He shook his head and calmed himself. "No, but that almost makes it worse. I don't think you're ready. Hell, I don't think I'm ready."

"So that's why you sent me away? Because we moved too far, too fast."

"No, that's why I feel guilty about it. I sent you—I thought you should spend time with Alcazar so that you could decide what you want. You didn't choose to be with me, you didn't choose this life for yourself. I just want you to know all your options because once I have you—if I ever have you—then I don't want to have to let you go because you aren't sure."

"So you think you shouldn't have had sex with me because…"

"Whoa. What? What are you talking about?"

"That's what we're talking right? We had sex and you think we shouldn't have because we moved too far, too fast." She threw the pen down on the desk and, unable to continue sitting, got up and started pacing.

"No, that is not what we are talking about." He pronounced each word to be sure she understood exactly what he was saying. "Having sex with you, making love with you, is not what I feel guilty about and not what I think we moved too fast with. It's everything else. You have no choice but to live with me. I'm raising my little sister now and you have no choice but to be a part of that. We built this life that most people wait for marriage to have and we've barely even decided to be together. That's what I feel guilty about. You've been turned into my wife before you even had a chance to decide if it was what you wanted."

"But I love spending time with Bella and you and you with Bella. Why would you think I don't want that?"

"I think that it's great for now, but what about when this is all done? Emily you disappeared from Port Charles when you were nineteen years old. You should have been out with your friends having fun and you were helping the FBI track done Nikolai. What happens once you have him? Are you going to want to be stuck in a life with me and a little girl or are you going to want to live and do the things you didn't have the chance too?"

"You think I'd ditch you and Bella?"

"No. I think you'd stay. You'd stay because you're loyal. Even if you were unhappy, even if you hated it, even if you wanted to go out and live your own life. You'd stay."

"What's so wrong with that? With being loyal."

"Nothing is wrong with being loyal, sweetheart, it's one of the things I love about you, but you could spend the rest of your life being loyal and forget that you also have to be happy. I don't want that for you. I don't want you to stay with me, with Bella, because you feel like you have to keep a promise that you made before you knew what you really wanted."

"You mean like your mother stayed with Deke or like mine stayed with…"

"Yes."

"But that's not the same. You aren't forcing me to stay, I have other options. I know I have other options. It's not the same."

"Don't you see? If I don't let you, make you, explore your options then it's exactly the same. I'll just be some guy who promised you something and trapped you in a life you don't want."

Emily shook her head and sat back down at the desk. She understood what he was saying, but she couldn't understand why he was saying it. Of course he didn't want her to feel trapped, but she never would, never had. Not with him. It was her choice to be with him and Bella and finally she realized that she'd just have to prove that to him, because of all the things she was unsure of, and there were a lot, the one thing she did know for sure was that when she was with them she felt at home. As confusing and abrupt as her feelings for Sonny were, she knew they were real. Now she only had to prove it to him, and the only way to do that was to play by his rules. "Alright. So what's the plan? I spend a few weeks with Alcazar and his parents and I make sure that being with you is what I want?"

"That's part of it," he nodded as if she was sitting right next to him and could see it.

"And what's the other part?"

"Being sure that, when all this is over, you're still happy with whatever choice you make."

"Alright." That sounded fair enough. For now. "I think I can do that. So what changes with us? Can I still call you? Can I still call Bella? Or do you want me to completely back off?"

"Whatever you want."

"Well I want to call you and Bella. I don't want either of you thinking I'm abandoning you."

Sonny shook his head and laughed. She didn't exactly seem to be getting his point. He didn't want her to prove her loyalty to him, he wanted her to be sure, but apparently they'd have to work on that later. "Okay."

"So…" she leaned back in the chair and smiled. "Now that, that's finished, how's Bella doing? Does she miss me?"

"You haven't even been gone a whole day yet."

"So she doesn't miss me?"

"No. No, she misses you. She wanted to know who was gonna read that book with her tonight."

"Oh, Little Women. Sonny you have to do it. I promised her we'd finish at least a book a month and if you don't get that done then we'll be behind and she'll be disappointed. She can really read it on her own, she just likes to have someone with her. You can do that right?"

"I do know how to read."

"I know that, but it's a girly book."

"Bella says I'll like this Jo character."

"Well…" she nodded her head, "yeah, you probably will. So you'll do it?"

"Yes. I had to go through this same conversation with her. What is it with you two?"

"Well, you don't exactly spend a lot of time reading Sonny. What do you expect?"

"I read."

"Shipping logs and bank records don't count Corinthos."

"I'm seriously considering sending you both away for a couple of months. Brats."

Emily laughed, shot a look at the locked door of the cabin and said, "Hey."

"Hey what?"

"What are you wearing?"

He nearly spat out is coffee all over the kitchen table. "Excuse me?"

"What are you wearing?" She wondered if he could hear the smile in her voice. She wondered if she really wanted him to, they'd never actually tried this before.

"Bella is in the next room."

"My biological father is about ten steps away from me, of course there is a locked door between us, but still..."

"A suit. I had a meeting earlier."

"Hmmm," she settled back into the chair. "You know what I like about you Corinthos?"

"No. What?"

"That you look almost as sexy in a suit as you do in absolutely nothing. It's really kind of amazing. Which one? The black Armani, please say the black Armani."

"Close, dark blue."

She wiggled her eyebrows cheekily, "Hmmm. That's really just as good. How about you do me a favor and take of the jacket and open up the top few buttons."

"I don't think so. What are you wearing?"

"Same thing I was when you saw me earlier. Jeans and the green tank top. Oh, and there is the sling, but I figure that's not what you meant."

"Not exactly. Is your hair up or down?"

"Up."

"Take it down."

"Alright," she grinned, pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair and shook it out. "Your turn. Ditch the jacket Corinthos."

He stood up to take his jacket off just as Bella came bounding into the room. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Nothing." Then why did he feel like he'd just been caught by his mother, making out with his girlfriend?

"Oh. Is that Emmy?"

"Uh," Sonny pulled the phone away from his face and stared at it. "Yeah."

"Tell her I said hi and I miss her and I'm taking good care of Bailey. We have to walk him later, don't forget," She started to leave the room and then turned back to him. "Oh, and I need your help with my homework."

"I thought it was all done last night."

"It was, but I have a project too."

"Okay, I'll be right in." Sonny watched her go and then brought the phone back to his ear, but the only thing he could hear was Emily laughing hysterically on the other end. He waited until she was finished and said, "It's not funny."

"Oh," she tried to catch her breath. "But it is. So very funny."

He shook his head and glared at the table, "I need to go."

"Oh, don't pout. Brenda told me that Michael has walked in on them a couple of times…or he did when he was younger, now he's learned to knock."

"Shut up. That's disgusting."

"Uh huh," she continued smiling into the phone. "Have fun helping Bella and I'll call you tonight. Maybe we can finish this."

"Don't count on it."

"I love you."

He shook his head, suddenly serious and said nothing in return.

"Sonny, I told you I'd think about what you said and what I want for my life, but that doesn't change how I feel right now. What do you feel?"

"I love you too."

"Good. Bye," she flipped her phone closed before he could say anything else. The stubborn ass. She shook her head and walked back into the main cabin of the plane.

"How was your phone call?"

"Huh?" Suddenly having Bella walk in on Sonny was not so funny. "Oh, it was fine."

"Are you cold?"

"Am I—? No. Why?"

"You took your hair down."

"Oh. That." Yup, Bella walking in on Sonny was definitely not funny. She'd have to apologize. "I just like wearing it down sometimes." She took the pony tail holder from around her wrist and put it back in her hair.

"While you were talking with…your friend, my father called. He's very interested in meeting you."

"Does he know who I am? I mean who I am to you and to him?"

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

"No," she rubbed her forehead and slouched back into the couch. "Of course not, he's your father you're allowed to tell him whatever you want to."

"I apologize."

"For what?"

"I hadn't realized it would make you uncomfortable to have them know. I keep doing that to you."

"No, no it's okay. Really. I look a lot like my mother; they probably would have figured it out anyway. And the other thing," she took a deep breath, "I think I overreacted. I mean you had a right to ask considering that you were sitting right here when I had the nightmare. I just—I don't really want to talk about it."

"Alright."

"I mean that doesn't mean I'll never want to talk about it. Just not right now."

"I understand."

She shot him a wan smile and shook her head, "I'm not sure you do, but maybe one day."

He only nodded and leaned back into the seat, "Is there anything you would like to know before we land? About me, or your grandparents, or anything else that you can think of?"

"Uh, what are they like?"

"They are…interesting."

"Interesting? That's that sort of thing I say about someone I don't like. You got a problem with your parents, Alcazar?" She smiled over at him, hoping to ease the tension. Of course calling her biological father by his last name probably wasn't the best way to ease the pressure between them.

"No. They love each other very much and they love me, they just have an interesting way of doing things. They're…"

"Interesting."

"Complicated. Very complicated. My relationship with your mother was almost the exact opposite of theirs. Where Sophie and I were open and caring with each other, my mother and father seemed remote and nonchalant. I tried to be very honest with your mother about everything, but I'm not sure if my father is honest with my mother at all. However, they've been together for a very long time and both seem very happy with each other."

Emily grinned and nodded at him, "Yeah. My mother and father and, for that matter, my grandmother and grandfather are kind of like that. I guess no one really knows what goes on inside a marriage or a relationship except the people in it."

He nodded and got the point. He didn't know her, he didn't know Sonny Corinthos, and his opinion was not need or asked for concerning any of the above.

"What about my mother's parents? Did you know them?"

"You grandmother died before I ever met you mother and her father loved her very much. He was, from what I remember, a very quiet man, but also very intelligent and caring. He loved her more than anything."

"I bet that didn't help with Nikolai's obsession with her."

"No, it didn't."

"So, do you think he's obsessed with me too? Or is he just looking for a way to get at you?"

"I do not know. I think if he knows for sure that you are Sophie's daughter then, yes, he will probably be obsessed with you too."

Emily looked down at her arm and nodded, "So that's what he wanted."

"Excuse me?"

She looked up at him, startled, and said, "Do you know if he would still have anything with my mother's DNA on it?"

"I…I have no idea. Possibly. Why?"

"When he had me, I guess I'm assuming it was him, but anyway they took blood from me. I was worried that maybe they put something in me too, but that doctors say no. So I guess that's what he wanted. My blood. To be sure."

"Possibly."

"And you don't seem the slightest bit bothered or confused by this. Why is that?"

"I've deal with Andrejs and his insanity for many, many years. I don't think there is anything about him or his way of doing things that could surprise me at this point."

"So you know him well then?"

"Yes," he inclined his head in her general direction. What was she getting at?

"Then what the hell is his planning? Why kidnap me? Why wait so long? What's his end game?"

"I can't tell you what he may be planning." He, once again, settled back into the couch. "I think he probably waited so long because, at some point, your mother managed to slip off of his radar and as far as what he wants with you, I don't know. It could be a great many things. He may believe that having you may help him restore his empire to the power it held under Sophie's father, he may believe that you are the closest to your mother he will ever get. I'm sure that not even Simon knows exactly what Andrejs' plans for you are. That was always part of the…allure for Simon. They never know what the other will do."

"Did that ever make them not trust each other," Emily asked as a plot began to form in her mind.

"Rarely, though there were occasions when one would take too many steps without the other realizing what was happening and they'd be wary of each other for a time. Why?"

"No reason," she lied. She certainly wasn't interested in hearing him tell her that it was too dangerous, at least not until she had the plan completely worked out in her head. If she was lucky then the boys would be ready to pick her up just as she had the full plan pulled together and just as they had ambushed her, she would ambush them.

"Alright." He knew that look; he'd seen it on her mother's face more than once while they were together and it always caused him to worry. Of course she would inherit the one trait of Sophie's that he hated—her complete stubbornness and belief that she was right no matter how insane one of her 'plans' became.

"How much do you know about Simon?"

"Very little. Only what I've learned from actually spending time with him. Either Nikolai or someone else did a very good job of expunging his history, or he simple does not have one."

"Everyone has some sort of history, so that must mean someone got rid of his. I wonder why."

"I can look into it."

"You haven't before?"

"Not with a great deal of ardor, the only thing I ever needed to know about Simon was that he was loyal to Andrejs and an enemy."

"Alright, well, if you don't mind I'd really like to know as much about him as possible."

"I'll arrange for it when we land."

"Good," she smiled. "Thank you. So…what does your house look like?"

"It's…I would rather if you saw it for yourself. It is very beautiful, but it has a much stronger impact, I'm told, if the person does not know what to expect."

"A surprise then?"

"Yes, a surprise."

"Cool. That works for me. So," she slouched into the couch and smiled over at him, "what sort of things are you interested in?"

He returned the smiled and the two of them spent the rest of the trip telling each other about the likes and dislikes concerning food, music, sports and other innocuous things. Neither was ready to go to deep, so the conversation suited, perfectly, both of their needs.