For the Love of Family
Chapter 33: That Was Then, This is Now
After dropping all of his children off at school Sonny took a moment to appreciate what he had, three beautiful children. Plus at least one of their mother's didn't hate him he thought as he instructed Max to head over to PCGH so he could see Brenda. When Jason had told him after she had been hospitalized he had been hurt that two of his best friends had kept her relapse a secret. He knew Brenda didn't believe that they could ever have a healthy romantic relationship and he was trying to respect that but she had promised him that their friendship wouldn't change. In the past she would have called him and it hurt that she had felt she couldn't.As he took the elevator to the sixth floor Sonny was overcome with a sense of dread as if something was happening to someone he loved. He thought first of Brenda because of where he was and as he rounded the corner to her room the cluster of people in the doorway confirmed his worst fears. Silently Sonny blended into the crowd and took in the scene. The woman he would always love lay there pale and uncomfortable and Dr. Monica Quartermaine stood just to the right of the crash cart. "That still looks like torsades, and her blood pressure is falling lets get ready to defibrillate charge at 360 joules. Give 2mg of Midazolam IV and 1mg of Morphine IV," Monica ordered.
"Drugs are in," one nurse said about a minute later.
"Defibrilator is ready," another added.
Sonny watched intently as Monica picked up the paddles and applied them to Brenda's chest. Monica intoned, "I'm going to shock in 3, 1 I'm clear, 2 you're clear, 3 OXYGEN clear!" Monica depressed the shock button and pressed down on the paddles. As the current transferred through Brenda, Sonny saw the involuntary muscle twitches as his mind took him back to an earlier time.
He was back in PCGH Emergency Department standing outside trauma one eleven years ago the night that Brenda had been struck by a hit and run driver outside Luke Spencer's old club. Sonny had later learned that it had been a hit by his father in law Hernando Riverra because he didn't trust Sonny to stay away from Brenda. Of course the irony was that it took watching Brenda come so close to dying for him to admit how deep his love still ran and that his marriage to Lily had been a sham at best. He and Brenda had planned to reconcile and he had planned to leave Lily. Then Lily got pregnant and Sonny had decided to stay in the marriage for his child. That might have worked except Lily's father had placed a bomb in his car, unfortunately Lily was the one who got into the car and was killed. After Lily's death Brenda and Sonny were both wracked with guilt and Brenda dated boy wonder AJ Quartermaine. Eventually they reconciled that winter and even planned to marry until Sonny worried about the danger he was putting Brenda in and called off their wedding. Brenda became the spokesmodel for Deception Cosmetics a joint venture between Jasper Jacks and Lucy Coe and escaped from Sonny's rejection.
"That's much better, blood pressure is coming back up and we're back in sinus rhythm. Just keep infusing the Magnesium and potassium. Next BMP in three hours and make sure you call me with the results," Monica's voice invaded Sonny's thoughts. He brought himself back to the present as he heard a pager go off.
Dr. Quartermaine silenced and then looked down at her pager frowning. "That's the cath lab, I've got to go but page me if we have any other problems," Monica said removing her gloves. She hesitated a moment and laid a hand on Brenda's shoulder. "I'm sorry we had to do that but I think things will be a lot better now. Do you want someone to call Cruz?"
"He's at work this morning. I'll be ok," Brenda said weakly.
"Hang in there Brenda, as I said before lot's of people love you. I think Emily was going to drop by on the lunch break from her ACLS course," Monica said then turning to leave.
Around Sonny the crowd dissipated as the extraneous nurses got back to their own patients and someone started to wheel the crash cart from the room to restock it. One of the last to leave was unit charge nurse Epiphany Johnson who glared at Sonny on her way out. Sonny half chuckled at her glare, last he had known she had worked down on one of the med-surg units on four, perhaps this was a step up for her. Her son Stan was one of Sonny's employees and she had made it abundantly clear that she didn't approve of what he did on numerous occasions.
Hesitantly Sonny crossed the room. Brenda looked so fragile and it tore at his heart. He bent down and stroked a cheek gently and she turned to look into his eyes. "Hey," she said weakly.
"How are you feeling?" Sonny asked pulling a chair closer to the bed and lowering himself into it.
"I've definitely had better days," Brenda said wanly.
"I'm sure you have and you're going to have some better ones coming up too," Sonny said.
"Yeah, I'm starting to believe that. Not all the time but well sometimes you take what you can get," Brenda joked.
"Sometimes you do," Sonny said. There was more he wanted to say, more he felt he needed to say but he felt distant in a way he hadn't before. "I'm still your friend Brenda right?"
"Yeah, listen Sonny I know you're probably hurt that I called Jason and that I asked Jason to keep this a secret from you. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I have to learn to trust myself. If I let you fix this like you did before then it's just going to haunt me later," Brenda said.
"I just want you to be ok," Sonny said but Brenda could see the pain in his eyes.
"I know because you're a good friend, and I'm going to try really hard to get to that point. But I think I need to do it more on my own, which is so scary but honestly not as scary as imagining this being a part of my life forever," Brenda said.
"You don't have to do it alone Brenda," Sonny said.
"I didn't say alone I just said more on my own. I do appreciate what you did for me five years ago and because of that I'm alive now. Honestly I'm not sure I could have fixed things if you hadn't. But this time I have to try, and if I fall then I have to get up again," Brenda said.
"Why are you pushing me away? I told you I'll always love you but I can respect that we can't be together that way. I can do that and be your friend and I'd rather do that than not have you in my life. Give me a chance to at least try," Sonny said.
"I'm not pushing you away, I promise. Maybe it's kind of like with your bipolar, for years we all looked the other way, and dealt with the aftershock because you really have a good heart. But what you really needed was an opportunity to get the medical care you needed. I suppose Emily was more able to see that because she wasn't so emotionally invested in your life. I'm glad she was there that night," Brenda admitted.
Sonny wanted to protest but the more he thought about it he realized she had a decent point. "So what do you need me to do?" he finally asked.
"Be my friend," Brenda said simply.
"I can try, and I'll try not to try to fix things. It's hard though," Sonny admitted.
"I'm sure it is," Brenda agreed.
"See I was hoping you would say to make you some of my great crepes. Now see that I could do," Sonny joked.
"Well you can do that too. Actually there is something else you could do but before I tell you promise you won't get upset. You can refuse to do it just don't be upset," Brenda said with one of her patented smiles.
Sonny tensed fearing what she was going to ask. "Ok," he said at last.
"Could you try to get along with Cruz because I really love him," Brenda said.
"Cruz Rodriguez, the cop?" Sonny asked.
"Yes, but he's a wonderful man Sonny. I mean you eventually even got along with Mac Scorpio. If you can do that this should be a breeze," Brenda said.
"I can try. Perhaps the two of you can come over for dinner, actually scratch that people will be insinuating that he's on my payroll like they did with your nephew Cooper," Sonny joked.
"Well in Cooper's case I suppose it appeared too convenient that he showed up in Port Charles, enrolled in the police academy and happened to be my nephew. He's had a rough last couple years between the whole Iraq thing and then his mother dying. He will be twenty one in December so he's grown up pretty fast," Brenda said.
"Yeah, is he still looking for his father?" Sonny asked.
"I didn't realize he was," Brenda said uneasily.
"I just know Spinelli was working on it for him. From what I could translate he wasn't having much luck," Sonny said.
"Hmm something in the cyber world that mystifies the jackal oh no!" Brenda joked.
"Ok you're starting to scare me here," Sonny said smiling.
"Well Jason tried to explain," Brenda said.
"So do you know who Cooper's dad is?" Sonny asked. He had always been curious.
"No, I mean I was nine when he was born. Julia had left home when I was seven, she and dad really didn't get along. Which makes it rather ironic that she took over part of his business. Of course she used to joke that he only gave her a branch to get her out of the house. Which may be true," Brenda said with a wry smile.
"If you were nine she must have been pretty young herself," Sonny said.
"She was twenty four, she was fifteen when I was born not quite as old as I was when Bree was born. Anyway we never knew she was pregnant until after the baby was born. From something one of her friends once said when I was older I had to wonder if Cooper was a child of rape," Brenda said.
"Do you want me to order Spinelli to stop the search?" Sonny offered.
"It's not my place to do that. If Cooper thinks he wants to know the truth, that is his right. I worry about what that will mean for him but it's his truth not mine," Brenda said.
"You're a brave woman," Sonny said.
"Sometimes moreso than other times. You could do me one favor though," Brenda said.
"I thought the favor was playing nicely with Detective Rodriguez," Sonny quipped flashing some dimples.
"Ok a second favor one favor for me and one favor is sort of for Coop even if he won't see it. When Spinelli finds the information give me a heads up before you tell him. He doesn't have to tell me what he found, just that he's done and that he'll be telling Coop, that way I can make sure this doesn't happen during some week I'm out of the country," Brenda suggested.
"I'll tell Spinelli that," Sonny agreed. "I've seen the aftershocks of Ric and Courtney discovering their heritage," Sonny said.
Brenda thought of both of his half siblings who were both dead. Although she knew that Jason didn't believe that Ric Lansing was really dead. She was sure that Spinelli was probably also supposed to be working on showing that Ric was alive.
Speaking of reclaiming your heritage how are Lois and Brooke?"
"I suppose Ned filled you in on his version already," Sonny said.
"Actually not really. Monica brought Katelyn and Nicole to visit on Sunday and Brooke was with them which I admit I found very odd. So, I called Lois and she gave me the thirty second version that Brooke got in trouble. Ned filled in a few more details when he came to visit the next day. I guess court went pretty well and she's living with Ned now," Brenda said.
"That's the plan."
"Let me guess, Lois is not thrilled," Brenda said.
"Would you be if you raised your daughter largely on your own to have someone take her away and give her to the man who abandoned her in the first place?"
"Ned totally needed to step up more than he did, but Lois didn't make it easy for him. I consider them both friends and Brooke is my goddaughter. I want what's best for her, which I still think is having both parents in her life," Brenda said.
"Well maybe Ned is changing, we'll see what happens," Sonny said.
"I think he's really scared for her Sonny, He's admitted that he should have done things differently so maybe a second chance is all they need," Brenda suggested.
"Maybe," Sonny said warily as Jason walked into the room. He gave Brenda a quick hug and then stepped back to face Sonny.
"Hey," Sonny said.
Brenda could feel the tension and felt guilty; she should have known that asking Jason to keep something from Sonny was a mistake. "Sonny listen don't be mad that Jason didn't tell you I asked him not to. Which was unfair of me, and I'm sorry. But we've talked now and I need to give you the chance to be my friend so why don't the three of us just have a group hug and move on?" Brenda suggested.
"It's not you Brenda, Sonny and I have some other things to talk about," Jason said.
"About what we talked about last night?" Brenda asked referring to their conversation about Carly and Michael.
"Well at some point we do need to talk about that also but there is something else a little more pressing," Jason said.
"Well I need to sleep anyway so why don't you go get some lunch from Kelly's and enjoy what looks like it's going to be a beautiful day," Brenda suggested.
"Will you call if you need something?" Sonny asked.
"Yeah, I will but I'm going to go to sleep, and I'm going to be ok," Brenda promised.
Sonny gave her a hug and then turned to go but one of the cards on the table caught his eye. He reached for the familiarly crooked printing and picked it up. The card was indeed from his youngest son Morgan. He looked at Brenda quizzically. "I think the apocalypse is coming, Ashton apologized to me; Eddie and I actually had a dare I say nice conversation at Kristina's art show, and Carly had the boys make you get well cards. What will be next, Alcazar actually becoming a legitimate business man for real?" Sonny joked.
"Actually Jason brought me the cards, and I'm guessing Carly doesn't realize Michael and Morgan made them. But Ned apologizing I have to hear so give me a call and tell me that story after lunch," Brenda joked.
"Will do," Sonny promised following Jason out of the room.