Chapter 3

Sonny walked into the door of his penthouse. He sat on the couch for a little while, thinking about his aborted "date" with Alexis after the Ball. He smiled as he remembered the look on her face when she had gotten a call from her latest client. It was quite obvious that she liked him. A lot. When she informed her client that she was busy, Sonny had interrupted to insist that she go. When she saw the determined look in his eyes, she didn't argue, and hurried from the restaurant in anticipation. Sonny laughed to himself, and decided to have his favorite PI prepare a dossier on this man. Alexis would be furious if she knew, but it didn't matter. He cared about her, and wanted to make sure she wasn't hurt.

Sonny went upstairs, undressing as he went. Once he reached his bedroom, he changed into pajamas pants. He paused as he thought about the PI, and remembered that he had a dossier on Skye Chandler. The PI prepared quite a thorough report on Skye, but Sonny had only perused the more salacious points. He was curious about her remark concerning her childhood. He padded downstairs and pulled the file. He went back upstairs and lay on his bed, reading the contents more closely than the last time. He grew more and more disturbed by what he read. He closed the folder, fighting the feelings that the words had stirred. He did not want to feel compassion for this woman. But he couldn't deny anymore that she was perfectly justified in what she did to Edward. Damn the man. He seemed determined to destroy every member of his family with his greed.

Sonny was jolted from his thoughts by the ringing of the telephone. It was Zander, reporting in for the evening. Sonny spoke with him for a while, and was about to say goodbye, when he had a thought. "Zander, I would like to ask your opinion about something. You've had some interaction with Skye Quartermaine. What do you think of her?" There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "Well, Sonny, I guess I would have to say my opinion of her is kinda mixed. I'm not sure what to think of her." "Elaborate." "Well, uh, when she came to the Quartermaines, she stirred up a lot of negative feelings. I didn't have a lot of interaction with her until after Sorel broke out of jail. The Qs wanted to banish me from the house so that Emily would be safe. She had to sneak out to meet me. Skye caught us one time, but didn't say anything to anyone. Then she came to us and told us that if we wanted to be together, we should run away. She would even provide the money to do so. Emily came to the conclusion that Skye was only doing it so that she could be in the limelight. You see, everyone tends to dote on Emily and Skye was jealous of the attention. But we weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so we took her up on her offer. In fact, at one point it looked as if she was rethinking the wisdom of the idea, but we convinced her it was the best way. She helped us escape, and Emily gave her a letter to give to the Qs explaining everything. Then you know what happened next – the train wreck and Emily's paralysis. Skye was clearly mortified by what happened, and blamed herself. She was also deathly afraid that everyone would find out she had a hand in it. We tried to cover for her, but they found out anyway, and her standing in the family pretty much took a nosedive after that. I'm not positive what happened to Emily's letter. I think Skye hid it at first, and then AJ got ahold of it, I dunno. Skye visited Emily in the hospital, and it seemed as if they were bonding a little. When Emily went off to rehab, Skye brought me letters that Emily had written me. I was really beginning to respect Skye."

There was another long pause. Sonny prompted, "But?" Zander sighed. "Remember I told you that AJ lied to Emily about the meat hook incident?" "Yeah." "Well, when I went to confront AJ about it, Skye was there. She seemed pretty disturbed that AJ would make up something like that, but when I asked her if she would tell Emily the truth, she refused. She told me that if I really loved Emily, I would turn against you. I refused, and so she refused to help me. She said that while I may be loyal to you, she was loyal to her brother. We were at kind of an impasse, so I left. I haven't spoken to Skye since then." Sonny considered this for a while. "So your respect for Sky ended when she refused to tell Emily the truth?" Zander sighed again. "Sortof. I mean, I can see why she might be more loyal to AJ than Emily, because AJ was the only one in the family that stuck up for her. But I just can't see why anyone would be loyal to a slimeball like AJ." There was a pause. "You know, Zander, some might say the same about your loyalty to me." "Yeah. I suppose that's why, as much as I want to, I just can't hate her." There was another long pause. "Well, thanks Zander, for the information. I very much appreciate it. Have a good night."

Sonny hung up the phone. He looked down at the folder, staring at a picture of Skye, taken a long time ago when she was a singer. He compared it to a recent picture taken at ELQ when they were announcing her new position as CEO. She had obviously gone through a lot of changes in between those two points in time, both on her resume, and in her personal life. Heck, even the name she goes by has changed dramatically. From Antoinette Patterson to Skye Chandler-Quartermaine. "Antoinette," he whispered. "What is it that makes you tick?" His thoughts disturbed him. He preferred to think of people and circumstances in terms of black or white. It was much easier to make decisions that way. This woman, ostensibly his enemy, was clearly neither. Sonny closed the file, and glanced over at the tape recorder sitting on his bedside table. He rewound the tape some, and hit play. "…just goes to show you don't know me at all." That's for sure, he thought as he hit stop, and fast forwarded a bit. "…think we have a lot in common, Ms. Chandler." He stopped it again. The last thing he wanted was to consider his commonality with an enemy. He fast forwarded some more. "…Sonny, he fell in love with her." He stopped the tape again, and had to grip the recorder to keep from throwing it across the room.

The idea of a scumbag like AJ being in love was laughable. In love with himself, maybe. All he cared about was serving his own desires. Skye genuinely seemed to think that AJ was in love with Courtney, but she was deluded. An image of AJ at the Nurse's Ball flashed in his head. He was looking down at Courtney, smiling. Sonny grudgingly admitted to himself that there was something different in AJ's expression. Sonny had only ever seen him smile in triumph or amusement at someone's expense. His smile had not fallen into either of those categories. Sonny immediately squelched his train of thought. He didn't want to think about the possibility of a reformed AJ.

The telephone rang again, and Sonny answered. It was Johnny. "Sir, we got a tip that Dawson's men are causing some trouble down at the warehouse. Its not serious, but I think our men down there are going to need backup." Sonny sighed and rubbed his face. "You better go see to this yourself. I'll be okay here. Be careful." Johnny rang off, and Sonny hung up the phone. He turned off the light, and contemplated the moonlight streaming through the window. He had just about drifted off to sleep, when he heard a noise downstairs. The person was making enough noise so that Sonny concluded that it was either one of his men, or someone who thought Sonny was still out for the evening. A suspicion began to form in his mind, and he crept from the room.