Bobbie knew what he was talking about, and, as much as she could try and tell herself that he couldn't have known, that there was no possible way that John could have discovered the one thing that she had been hiding from him for so long, she knew that, in the end, there was no way to admit the truth, at least to herself. But, admitting the truth to John? That was something else. Something that she wasn't willing to do. Not now, not ever.
"Bobbie," John grew tired and angry with the games that she was playing with him. After all, Carly was his daughter, there was no denying that fact anymore, and if she tried, he would find a way to make her suffer for lying, for keeping him unaware of the fact that he had a daughter who might have needed him. "I'm not going to ask you again. Tell me, right now, if Carly Corinthos is my daughter."
"What makes you think that she is?"
"She looks exactly like one of my relatives, Bobbie, my great aunt. She's a dead ringer for that lady. I can show you the picture, if you need it…"
"A picture can be edited."
"Stop lying to me!" John yelled. "Just tell me the truth, please!"
"Now you're requesting that I tell you the truth?" Bobbie could have snickered, and, if it was any other situation, she probably would have, but what she was going through at that moment was too distracting for her to even think about taking the smallest amount of delight in John's discomfort. "My, how the mighty have fallen."
"I'm not going to ask you again, Barbara Jean!" John growled, grabbing her wrists.
"John, stop it! You're hurting me…" Bobbie would not give him the benefit of watching her cry. He had made her cry far too many times in the past and she refused to become that person again. She was done crying of John Durant, she had been done for years and years.
"Tell me the truth!"
"I'm not going to tell you anything in the state of mind you're in right now. Even if I told you, you would think that I was lying, or you would get upset at me if you thought it was the truth. What would people say if they saw you right now?" Bobbie pulled herself away from John with all her might, ripping her wrists out of his hands and rubbing them gently. The pain was gone a moment later, but the vision would stay with her forever.
"I'm sorry…"
"Sorry doesn't do much, John," Bobbie replied spitefully. "What would people say if I told them that you just assaulted me because of something that I may or may not have done? Do you think your approval rates would be as high as they are right now? No, they would go down tremendously, and it would all be your fault."
"Don't turn this into a game. Just tell me what you know. I deserve to know the truth, one way or the other. I deserve to know if Carly is my daughter." No matter what she said, even if she said no, John would believe that she truly was his daughter, because of that uncanny resemblance. It was a miracle that he never picked up on it before, the first time that he saw her. He knew that there was something familiar about her, but it wasn't until that night that he could really put a finger on what it was that seemed to grab him so much.
"Why would it matter?"
"Because it matters to me."
"You never once wanted to have a child before, did you?" Bobbie asked. "Remember? I asked you if you ever wanted to start a family, I gave myself up to you. I did the one thing that someone shouldn't have done if they were the person that I used to be, I fell in love with one of my clients, I fell in love with you. But you didn't want me as anything more than just a constant sex toy to be used at your beck and call, and you crushed me when you said that you didn't feel anything for me, that you would never want me like I wanted you. And now you have the nerve to ask me if my daughter, who I love so much, is actually a part of you…"
"It would make sense, wouldn't it?" John asked, the temper becoming more intense inside of him. How he wanted to just shake the answer out of Bobbie, and, if it came to that point, he wasn't sure that he would be able to stop himself. He wanted to believe that he could, but, at that moment, he wasn't sure. "After all, you were a spurned lover. What better way to get back at the man then to leave with his baby, not even telling him that he was going to be a father."
"It wouldn't have mattered, you wouldn't have stayed…"
"So now you're admitting it?" John wondered, hearing the shift in Bobbie's voice, the same way that she used to talk when she was thinking about something, or when she was hurt. He had thought about the way that he crushed her that day he rejected her, although he never thought that it was a decision that he would regret, until that exact moment. "If she is my daughter, then that I means that I have two grandsons and a child that I don't know anything about, that I don't have a connection with."
"She isn't, John," Bobbie stated defiantly. "I don't know why you think that Carly is your daughter, but she isn't. And thank you for forcing me to remember the fact that I may never know who gave me my precious daughter… thank you for making me remember the fact that I used to be a horrible person."
"I never once told you that you needed to be that way."
"No, but you certainly didn't try and help me find a way out of it, did you? I had to do that myself, with the help of my brother, but never with you, the person who I truly thought would actually give a damn about me." Speaking to him about the times of the past only brought up the memories again, and none of them were particularly pleasant. "Why don't you leave, John, you've done enough here."
"I don't believe you, Bobbie. I still believe that Carly Corinthos is my daughter, and I'm going to keep on hounding you until I find out one way or the other."
"Leave her alone!" Lucky demanded as he turned around the corner. He hadn't heard enough of the conversation to get curious, but he heard enough to hear that John was threatening her, his Aunt, someone who had always been there for him, even when his own mother couldn't be.
"Officer Spencer… I hope you understand just who you are taking that tone with."
"Some selfish, self-serving bastard who doesn't understand what it means to be a decent human being is my immediate guess," Lucky replied, completely without any sort of regret in his voice. He wasn't going to stand by and allow John Durant to destroy his family. In theory, the protection, or rather the yearning for that protection, would have extended to Sonny and the rest of them, but, in the end, it didn't. Lucky wanted them to wallow in their own mistakes. They brought John Durant into town, and everyone was suffering for it. "Leave."
"This isn't over…" John said as he walked passed Bobbie.
"Oh, I think it is," Bobbie muttered under her breath, but she knew that John was right, that it wasn't going to be over anytime soon, that everything had just gotten worse. Much worse.
"Are you all right?" Lucky asked, focusing his attention on his aunt. In Luke's frequent absences, it fell onto Lucky to take care of the people that they cared about, since Bobbie meant so much to him, the boy was more than willing to pick up the slack. "Why was he treating you like that?"
"Because John's the type of man that likes to nurse grudges…"
"What does he have against you, Aunt Bobbie?"
She turned away, "Lucky… please… I've already been through so much today. Can you just ignore what happened, at least for a little while?" She knew that it was futile to have him completely forget the whole ordeal, but she certainly did not want to speak about it with her nephew. Not because she didn't love him, but because the less people who knew the better it was for her.
"But…"
"I'm asking you, as your Aunt, to forget about it. I can deal with this in my own way, I just don't want to have to drag you in."
"I want to help you."
"And I appreciate the fact that you want to help me more than you'll ever know, but, you're like your father. I know how much you hate to think about that, but it's true. You think that you can find some way to fix every problem that you come across, and that just doesn't work out the way that you want. There are limits to even your power, Lucky. Both you and Luke need to realize that."
Lucky did hate being compared to Luke. It was once something that he loved, that he felt that he was being honored with. Being compared to Luke Spencer, the hero of Port Charles, the man who could do everything. Lucky once idolized his father, but that boy was no longer around. Like many people, Lucky grew up, and when he grew up he realized one thing: his father had faults. A lot of faults. "If I forced myself onto you, into your problem, that would just be me acting even more like him, wouldn't it?"
"I'm afraid so…"
Lucky gave a meek smile as he scratched the back of his head. "All right, I'm going to give you what you want, at least for now, but I swear, if I see that man attacking you again, all bets are off. And, if you need someone…"
"You'll be the first person I call." Bobbie walked over and hugged him, "I'm glad that you came when you did, truly, I am."
"I just needed to check and see if there was anything that Lois had left after the car accident that would help the case. A statement that said that she was entirely at fault, something like that. But there wasn't…"
"It doesn't matter why you were here, you just were."
"But now I really should get back to the station," Lucky commented breaking himself away from Bobbie. "Remember what I said…"
"I will." Bobbie watched Lucky leave, and her heart sank. She said that he would be the first person that she called, but he wasn't going to be the first person that she called. Frantically, Bobbie walked into an empty room nearby and grabbed the phone. She dialed one number, one that she had memorized. After a few rings, the owner answered, "I need to see you… our situation just got a lot more complicated. Can you come to the hospital? As quickly as possible, please." With the phone call ended, Bobbie sat on the edge of the bed in the room and sank her head into her hands. Why did things have to end up the way that they were? Why couldn't they have ended up better?
Corinthos Household-
Sonny had returned from the hospital long before, but it was only at that moment that he called the Port Charles Hotel to make sure that Lois was already all checked in. "Can you tell me if Lois Cerullo has checked in, please?" A moment of pause as the person on the other side fished for the answer, and then affirmation. "She has? Thank you." He would give her the time that she would likely need to adjust to the place, he just wanted to make sure that there was no trouble that had happened.
Jason opened the door without knocking, as he often did. If he and Sonny weren't best friends, if they didn't think of each other like brothers as they often did, it probably would have been a little rude, but Jason didn't bother to pay much attention to etiquette. It sort of defeated the purpose of being a hitman. "Anything I need to worry about?" Jason wondered, seeing Sonny hang up the telephone.
"No, just dealing with what happened to Lois last night. I know that Ned's your cousin, but… I'm so mad at him for what he did."
"Ned always seemed like the type of person who wouldn't care who he stepped over. He's a Quartermaine…"
"Dillon isn't like that," Sonny commented. "And neither are you."
"We got lucky…"
"Sorry," Sonny said with a shake of his head, "I know how much you hate talking about them, so I won't keep with the discussion…"
"I had Stan bug the hotel room where Durant is currently staying and we found something…"
"Something big?"
"We don't know yet," Jason replied. "It could be something big. There's no voices, just sound, and it sounded like he was looking at something and whatever he found seemed to have struck a cord with him. He left in a hurry, and he had already ordered some food, so we know that he wasn't planning on leaving."
"Do you think he knows that we have his room bugged?"
Jason shook his head, "We had someone on the inside do it, and the bug is almost impossible to detect. Durant might think that he knows who he is dealing with, but he really doesn't know a damned thing about either of us. We're going to win this, Sonny."
Sonny looked at Jason, "Yeah… yeah, we are." There was confidence in Sonny's voice, but he knew that it was just fake confidence. He wished that he could feel just as confident as he truly sounded, but it did not seem like it was going to happen. Rare was it when Sonny Corinthos felt fear, and he always hated feeling it.
