When We Wake Up
Chapter 22

Sonny had felt the walls close around him as she slapped him. All he could see in front of him was his stepfather hitting him and his mother getting in the way to stop it. Sonny couldn't do anything, he was frozen. He needed to get his anger out. He hit the wall but that didn't make him feel better. The bar was next on his agenda and as he broke the glass one by one the anger he felt started to subside and he could feel himself calming down.

Carly shook more with each shattering piece. Sinking deeper and deeper into herself. Mark had done this. He used to smash everything in the house then start on her. Carly grew more afraid at that thought and huddled closer into the corner. She hugged her legs and sobbed quietly hoping that he wouldn't be able to see her to get to her.

Sonny slowing stopped breaking what was left of the glass and began to become aware of his surroundings. He could hear something but didn't know what it was. He slowly turned and looked around. He became more and more aware by the second and realized Carly wasn't standing there anymore. He looked around and couldn't see her. Then he hear her faint sobbing and got scared. What did he do to her? He followed the sound of the sobs and found Carly huddled into the corner.

"Oh god, Carly" Sonny whispered and kneeled down in front of her.

Carly jumped and hugged herself tighter. "No, please, please, don't hurt me. I'm sorry....Don't hurt me...."

"Carly..." he knew that she was fighting the same demons that he had. "It's me Sonny..."

"Please...I won't do it again...I'm sorry." Carly continued to cry still not registering that it was Sonny.

Sonny took a chance and reached out to touch her shoulder. "Carly honey....it's me Sonny, I'm here I won't hurt you."

Carly looked up but she still wasn't fully aware of where she was.

"That's it honey, come back to me. Remember its Sonny....I won't hurt you..." Sonny continued to reassure her as Carly slowly became aware.

"Sonny?" Carly managed to get out.

"Yes baby....its me..." Sonny reached out his arms and Carly jumped into them and started sobbing again.

"Carly I'm soo sorry" Sonny held her tightly feeling very angry at himself for causing her to relive this. "I would never hurt you"

"Sonny...I'm sorry..." Carly cried.

"Sorry for what?" Sonny asked.

"I'm sorry I slapped you, I..I didn't mean it."

"Carly honey....shhhh....it's ok...."

"No its not...you got angry and I didn't mean to make you angry...."

"It's ok, I have some demons of my own... You know I would never hurt you right?" Sonny asked scared of what her answer might be. He swore to himself that he would never make a woman scared of him.

"Sonny, I know, but when you started breaking the glass, I got scared. All I could think about was what Mark did to me..." Carly choked back a sob.

"Oh Carly...I'm so sorry....I didn't mean to scare you....God I never want you to be afraid of me. That's why I didn't tell you about me being in the mob sooner."

Carly pulled back at his last statement and sat back against the wall. "How could you keep that from me? I poured my heart out to you and you kept that to yourself. You knew that I was afraid and running from them. Do you know Mark? Do you work for him? Are you going to take me back to him?"

"Whoa, one question at a time. First off, I would never take you back to Mark. No women deserves to be hit and I will kill him if I ever see him. Second...Carly there is more than one part to the mob. I am the boss of my territory. People work under me..I don't work for them." Sonny explained.

Carly looked at him wanting to believe in him, but her experience with the mob has not been good.

"I do not and will not EVER condone a man hitting a woman. The men who work for me would be dead if they ever laid a hand on a woman. Mark is a dead man."

"You are still part of the mob, how am I going to live with that?" Carly asked.

"Carly do you trust me?"

"I want to so much it hurts, but Sonny I'm scared." She looked up at him and he could see she needed reassurance and comfort. He opened his arms and she jumped into them.

Carly snuggled into him. She needed his comfort and she needed to believe him.