"How is she doing?" Jason asked Jax in the hallway outside of Carly's room.
"She says she's fine, but I think yesterday was a bit much for her." Jax confessed. "I'm not sure how I feel about her being released tomorrow."
Jason understood his concern, but he also knew how much she needed that time at home. "She would never ask, but I think the best thing for her today is to limit the number of visitors."
"I agree, besides, the family has all day with her tomorrow." Jax had more he wanted to discuss with Jason, but he wasn't sure how he wanted to go about confronting him about his feelings for his wife. "Jason, when Carly is feeling better I want to be the one to tell her about Jerry."
"I'm not going to say anything in South Carolina if that is what you are implying." Jason replied.
"It's no secret that you don't particularly like me." Jax insisted.
"I want her to be happy, and if you can do that then I have no problem with you."
"You still blame me for this." Jax pressed.
Jason looked inside the window and saw Britni curled up in her mother's arms. "This isn't the time or place."
"I am trusting my wife to be alone for two weeks with you."
Jason was irked by the Jax' use of the phrase 'my wife.' He understood Jax' reasoning for not wanting Carly to know about the DVD when they found out about her condition. If Jason was right, and Claudia was implicated, then Jax should have told somebody to keep Michael and Morgan away from her. Even after the stroke he refused to let on about that detail. "I trusted you to keep Carly and her boy's safe."
************
"There it goes again." Claudia said. Sonny sat on the couch trying to feel the baby kick. Each time he lifted his hand she started again.
"I swear this thing hates me." Sonny commented.
"This thing? That's your problem right there. She will love you as soon as you start doting on her." Claudia responded.
Sonny was doing what he could to make Claudia feel at home at his place. It wasn't fair the way he had been treating her. Whether they planned it or not she was carrying his child, and he was going to love her just as much as any of his children. Sonny thought back to after his first wife, Lily, died. She was pregnant with his child. After Carly miscarried their first child he was sure that it was his curse to never bare an heir. Since then there was Kristina and Morgan, and now another baby girl.
"I let you have anything you wanted for the nursery."
"And it turned out fantastic." The nursery was the only room in the house left untouched by his ex-wife. Claudia wanted to make it as bright as she could. She had it painted in a pale yellow with white and spring green furnishings. When Claudia was left alone she liked sitting in the old rocking chair that she had brought out of storage imagining her self holding and feeding her daughter.
"What should we name her?" Sonny asked hoping it would prevent him from referring to her as it.
"Really?" Claudia responded thrilled with the idea that he wanted to help. "I was thinking maybe something Italian like Sicily or Venetia."
"You mean you don't have a name picked out already?" Sonny asked surprised that it hadn't been picked out when she was a five-year-old girl playing house with her dolls.
"I hadn't really thought about it before." Claudia admitted. Before her need to get pregnant to save her life she had never thought she would be a mother. She knew the life that she and John had grown up to, and never wanted to bring a child into that environment. "Unless you would like it named after your mother or sister?"
Claudia was only vaguely familiar with the memory of Adela and Courtney. Sonny pushed it aside, perhaps a middle name.
"What about Dominica or Maria?" Sonny suggested after hers or Johnny's mothers. They decided against naming her after someone.
"Don't they have books of names?" Claudia asked. "I can go out a grab one and we can come back to this tonight after dinner, I'm graving chicken parmesan, by the way."
Sonny smiled. He could manage that. "If you're in a rush to go, I can get Max to take us out. I was hoping to stop by the hospital."
Sonny instructed Max to get the limo ready. As they grabbed their coats and heading out the door Claudia ran into Johnny who looked concerned.
"Go ahead." Claudia insisted. "I'll catch up with you tonight."
Sonny left and Johnny followed hid sister into the living room.
"Family outing planned?" Johnny observed. "I didn't mean to interrupt."
"What are you doing here?" Claudia asked.
"How many people have to know about something before it's no longer a secret?" Johnny asked.
She gathered that someone else knew about the hit on Sonny. At this point the tally was herself, John, Jerry, Ric, Jax, and Alexis that she knew about. Jason and Sonny were both suspicious. "Why? Who now?"
"Michael." He answered.
Claudia was stunned. She hoped the bond she had with Michael might help her cause. "How did he take it?"
"He wants to tell Sonny." Johnny answered. He explained Michael's reaction, and the probability that Carly had known but forgotten.
"Do you think it could work?" Claudia asked hopeful. She wanted to be optimistic about it. It would be great if the secret was out in the open, and with Michael's support maybe Sonny wouldn't be as keen on retaliation.
"No. I think it would be great if it did, but let's be honest, even if Michael could convince Sonny to cease and desist, what are the chances of Jason backing off?"
"Jason is Sonny's foot soldier. He wouldn't go against Sonny and harm the mother of his child."
"The same foot soldier that took over Sonny's business and got Sonny to sign away his parental rights for Carly?" Johnny had done a lot of work with Jason recently, he knew that on a business level Jason was loyal to Sonny, but lately on the personal level Jason's loyalty was to Carly. Michael's shooting definitely fell into the personal column.
"Point taken. So I have to call Michael and tell him to leave it alone. If he really wants this over, then we have to let it slide." She wasn't sure how that was going to happen. Too many people knew to let it die quietly.