Samsonlove- My bad, I thought that the Samson in your name was for Sam and Jason, not Sam and Sonny. You're right, though, for what they were they were actually pretty good. A lot of people, and I mean a lot, hated the idea of Sam and Sonny together, and while I wasn't exactly thrilled with breaking up Carson like they did, I didn't hate Sam or Kelly because of it. I like her more with Jason, though, even though that also meant the end of Journey. A lot of people love to hate Carly, even the people who say that they love her. I love Carly myself, but I agree, the crazy Carly storyline was very strong, Jennifer gave a wonderful go at a storyline that she could have just gone through the motions with, but she didn't. She gave it everything that she had, and it really made me miss her, because by then I knew she was gone. I look to touch upon the Ric/Sonny relationship in this story, too, as you've seen. But yesterday, when they hugged, I cheered.

Story-

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Lois sat on the couch in the main social area of the Quartermaine mansion. There was always that choking feeling of oppression that the house brought with it, now even more so without Lila there to keep her family in line. Truthfully, though, for the most part the Q's had managed to stay their tongues, only in spirit of the woman that they all knew was responsible for them even remaining a family. If it wasn't for Lila, if some lesser woman had married Edward all those years ago, then Edward would be alone, and the family wouldn't have any of the stability that it had, which was saying a lot, since the Quartermaine's tended to be the opposite of stability.

She wouldn't have even stayed if it wasn't for her daughter. If Brook's father had been in any other sort of family, Lois would have had no problem leaving her now grown daughter with her father for a little while, even if it meant being apart from her for a few months. But that wasn't the way that it worked out. Brook's dad wasn't just anyone, he was Edward Ashton, Ned to some, Eddie to her on some occasions. Lois knew in her heart that Ned was a good person, a good father, but Ned also had a lot of faults, and the biggest fault was the way that he allowed his family to constantly use him and pull him away from his own family. Ultimately, that was one of the core reasons why their relationship was destroyed, why Lois took the baby and ran, because she didn't feel like she was a part of Ned's life. Sometimes, Lois even wondered if Brook was truly a part of Ned's life, or if he was merely coddling both his daughter and his ex-wife. Those thoughts were frequently less than pleasant, and she tried to avoid thinking about them because Lois always wanted to believe the best in people. How else would she have a friend like Sonny?

And that was another reason why Lois stayed around… because of Sonny, or, more specifically, because of Sonny's grown up son. Brook hadn't told Lois anything, a fact of life that she had forced herself to grow accustomed to once Brook finally hit that age where she no longer looked to her mother as a friend, but rather as public enemy number one, but that didn't mean that Lois didn't understand her daughter. True, there were parts of Brook that made no sense to Lois, but she was sure the same could be said of her own mother when Lois was that age. But there was one thing that Lois did understand about Brook Lynn, and that was her heart. It may have taken Lois a little while to actually see it, but once she did, it was impossible to miss. Her daughter had fallen for Damian Corinthos, and fallen for him hard. She thought she could hide it from her family, but she failed at every turn, at least when it came to Lois. Of course, Lois said nothing, knowing full well that anything she did or said could be seen as an attack, and that could push Brook away from her even further, something that Lois was not quite ready to risk.

It wasn't hard to understand why Brook had fallen for Damian, at least not in Lois's eyes. He had a lot of what made his father such an attractive person, depth that nobody could hope to understand but the few who he opened up his heart to. Sonny had done it with Lois, and maybe Damian would do it for Brook. Plus, he was a piano player, a good one at that. If Lois was still in the music business, which she was, but at a much lesser degree, she would have seen what she could do about hiring Damian for a few songs. It wouldn't take up much of his time, and he could do it whenever he wanted, they would work with his schedule. A fool's dream, though. And, in some ways, so was Brook's hankering for Damian's heart. If he was anything like his father, and Lois thought that he was, once his heart belonged to someone, it was going to stay with them for a long time, until something finally happened to push them away. Sonny would still be with Lily, had she not been killed in that horrible accident. And Brenda… that just went to all hell. Lois didn't like Carly, never would, but that didn't mean that she didn't see the attraction that Sonny had to her. Damian was like that, he loved Maxie, and his heart would stay with Maxie for a long time.

"Don't you have something better to do with your time?" Tracy's shrill voice broke the silence. Lois wished that Tracy's voice had never been heard. Ever. "I'm sure they have some going out of business sale at that cheap place where you get your press on fingernails, there is no way in the world that people could be nearly as gaudy as you…"

"Lila always liked my nails…"

Tracy stopped and glared at Lois. "It's not good to lie about the dead."

Lois rolled her eyes, "Who said that I was lying, Tracy? Your mother accepted me for who I was, something that you could never do…"

"If my mother had one fault, and only one fault, it was the way that she was so accepting of the people around her, people who had no reason for being around my family. People like you, and like Courtney, and the Spencers'…"

"Lila wasn't a horrible old woman with nothing better to do and no way of making herself look better except by making other people look and feel worse by comparison. That, my dear ex-mother-in-law, is entirely your game."

"And I'm a damned good player at that game, probably the best."

"You know, there are times when I feel sorry for you, Tracy, I truly do. You have the love of your children, for reasons that I will never, ever, understand, but you don't accept them, you never have."

"I love my children…"

"Maybe, but why did Dillon leave you? Why is Dillon living with Jason and Courtney, right next to Sonny and his best friend? Because you threatened to strangle away any sort of individuality that he had inside of him until he became the person that you wanted to be. Your family did the same thing to Ned…"

"What are you blabbing about?" Tracy asked, hiding the pain that she felt when Lois mentioned the way that she failed her youngest child. That would probably always be considered Tracy's biggest failure, something that she knew about, but would never admit, because showing weakness was very unbecoming of a woman of her class and stature. "Have you been dipping into the bar again? Am I going to need Alice to lock it up?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Tracy. Ned was such a different person when I met him, he was kind, he was selfless, he was everything that I had hoped to find in a man, and then I found out who he really was, that he wasn't Eddie Maine, that he was someone else completely, and I still thought that I could find the person that I loved underneath everything else that he was… I truly believed that in my heart, but it just wasn't possible…"

"You're in the music business, find yourself a good violin player, because nobody in this room gives a damn about your sob story…"

"Why do I even bother trying to tell you anything?"

"Because you're as stubborn as a mule, and, you have the attention span of a goldfish. Wait a few seconds and you'll try again…"

Lois got up from the couch, placing the magazine back on the table. She would have smacked Tracy across the face, she thought about it so many times, but kept herself in check because Tracy was her elder, and she was still, in some roundabout way, family. Plus, she would not soil the spirit of Lila by doing something like that against her daughter. Lila was the classiest woman that Lois had ever met, she wouldn't bring down that spirit, especially not in her own house. "One day, Tracy, one day you might realize all the mistakes that you've made, and nobody is going to listen to you when you finally decide that you feel badly about them, because nobody is going to believe that you ever had something that could even remotely be considered a heart."

Tracy rolled her eyes at Lois and watched as the woman made her way out into the foyer. When nobody else was around, Tracy moved over to the bar and poured herself a glass of water, looking at her own reflection in the glass, moving with the swaying flow of the water. Lois said that one day she might realize the mistakes that she made, what Lois didn't know was that Tracy had always been aware of them, from the beginning until that moment, and she would never forget them.

Corinthos Household-

Sonny had only recently gotten back to the Penthouse after his short meeting with Ric. Sonny believed that he was doing the best thing that he could do, to help protect his son and his future, but there was still a part of him that wondered if there was even the slightest change that his little brother could turn around and bite him in the ass. Ric was better now, Sonny openly admitted that to people who asked. He wasn't so consumed by his feelings for revenge and vengeance, his jealousy. But Sonny wasn't a fool, he knew that it was still there, that, beneath the surface, Ric still wanted more out of their relationship than Sonny was willing to ever give him. Ric wanted something that Sonny could never give him. Ric wanted a relationship with Adella, their mother, but that was beyond impossible. She was gone, gone for good. Did Sonny feel bad about the fact that their mother had picked him over Ric? Yes, of course, but Sonny was so young when it happened that he didn't really have a choice in the matter. And, if he did, would he really have chosen to let her stay with Ric? Where would that have left him? Did he even want to know?

The man gave very little recognition to Leticia when she came back into the house, even to his own son. He smiled at Morgan, his baby who he thought he would never be able to have in his life, that he thought he wasn't worthy of having, but there were more pressing things on Sonny's mind, like Durant, the man that could easily bring Sonny and Jason down. It wasn't something that he liked to admit, but it was true. Durant was ruthless, and he pulled out all the stops. People who thought that they had a better grasp on their life than Sonny had been taken out by him. He was one of the most feared individuals in the country for mobsters, and now he was on Sonny's territory, with the expressed desire to take Sonny out. If nothing else, Durant's presence bought Sonny a little bit of time. Nobody would even think of coming to Port Charles while Durant made base there, the risks were too great. He knew of almost all the families and people in the business, if he didn't know all of them already, he would find out the minute they caused the smallest blip on his radar. Sadly, for Sonny and his family, Damian had been one of those people to cause a blip.

Sonny was surprised to see his wife walk in a few minutes after Leticia and Morgan. "I thought you came in with them…"

Carly shook her head, "I ended up having a run in with someone, it took me a few minutes to get rid of him."

Sonny thought about what she was saying, or rather, what she wasn't saying. A run in with someone? A him? "Carly, who did you see?"

"Your brother…"

The man let out a small sigh of relief. He had feared that it was Durant, that Durant had managed to get to his wife the same way that he had gotten to Damian, and, to a lesser extent, Michael. Sonny's middle child was still acting hurt and dejected by the people around him, but he was at school, he was relatively safe. "What did Ric say?"

"A lot of things… he talked about how he wants to be forgiven for everything that he's done."

"He does."

"Yeah, well, I'm not in a very forgiving mood right now, or ever." Carly walked further into the house and stood by her husband. "He also said something else… he said that I needed to tell you how much I hate him. Not that you don't know… it's just… the way that he said it, Sonny, it makes me wonder if he knows something that we don't know, like he's planning something that will hurt us again… should I have Jason watch him and make sure that nothing happens?"

Sonny shook his head, "You don't need to worry about my brother, Carly."

Carly was surprised, "Sonny, I know you want to believe that he's over everything that he's felt about you, but he probably isn't. He festered hatred inside of him for so long, it doesn't just go away when you snap your fingers. Believe me, I know… I did the same thing with my mother. It took me years to finally make peace with myself. Ric hasn't had that much time."

"He's not going to hurt us…"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I asked him to help…"

Carly felt a small part of herself break inside. Sonny was asking for Ric's help? "Why would you do something like that, Sonny? Why would you go to someone like Ric, someone who spent so much time making our lives miserable, someone who caused us so much pain, who enjoyed it? Why would you go to him for help?"

"Because I didn't have a choice!" Sonny replied quickly, hating the way that he felt like he was under attack. "Carly, believe me, if there was anything else I could do, I would, but you just need to trust me right now… I'm doing this for my family, for you, for my sons, for everyone."

Carly turned around, "I don't know, Sonny. I don't know if I can trust your judgment if you're doing something like this, if you're not telling me anything how do I know that I can feel safe with the decisions that you're making? You could ruin our entire family… and I don't want you to even think about taking that risk."

Sonny reached over and touched his wife's hand as gently as possible. He was half-surprised to see her pull it away as soon as the contact was made, but not completely shocked. Carly had a way about her that made her act stubborn when she didn't get what she wanted. Sighing, Sonny realized that if he was going to ease his wife's pain, he would need to do something that he rarely did, he would need to give her a little bit of insight as to what was going on. Not a lot, but enough. "Carly… I need Ric to help me because… because John Durant is in Port Charles."

Carly turned around, "The John Durant?" She had heard of him many times, Sonny talked about him a few times, but he was almost always on the news. Always talking about his latest conquest in the war on crime.

"Yeah, the John Durant. If I have any chance of coming out of this without a scratch, I need to have as many people on my side as possible, even if it means trusting people that I might not trust normally, like my brother." It wasn't something that Sonny enjoyed admitting, but it was the truth. He had to take risks, and he never was very good at taking risks.