Note: From hereon in I'm going to be putting a page number at the bottom of
the story just to let me know where I'm at, because I've gotten lost a few
times. Plus, it will let you know how much you've read, which might be an
accomplishment, or show how pitiful it is. One or the other. I'm joking.
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Story-
"What I do with my time and who I associate myself with is none of your concern, Sonny," Damian sneered. He didn't trust Lorenzo Alcazar either, but the man had information that he wanted, and he'd do just about anything for it.
"The hell it doesn't!" Sonny was irate. Subconsciously his mind's eye wandered, looking for a glass to throw. It took a great deal of will to resist the urge to actually find something and fling it. "You're my son, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you be around people like that!"
"Thanks, Mike," Damian muttered at his grandfather.
Mike put his hand on Damian's shoulder, "This is the right thing for you to do, Damian. You shouldn't be around Lorenzo or those like him."
"Then maybe I should leave right now," Damian said. "But where am I going to go? The only other place I go back to is home, and from what you've told me it's just like that in Los Angeles!" "What's he talking about?" Mike asked Sonny.
"Tell you about it later."
"No," Damian shook his head. "Why don't we tell Mike right now, Sonny? I mean, it's not like he won't find out eventually. And, unlike some people, I like to be the one that tells family directly about things like this."
Sonny was getting even more maddened by the minute. "How long are you going to hold that over my head?"
"Probably as long as you've held your abandonment issues over Mike's head, if not longer. I grew up in the 'Dynasty' era, trust me when I say that I know how to hold a long-standing grudge!"
Sonny turned around and walked away. If he stayed around longer, arguing with Damian, odds were that one of them, if not both, would end up doing something that they would regret. The last thing Sonny needed at that moment was to add yet another item to the ever-growing list.
Mike sighed, "You shouldn't have done that."
"Come off it, Mike!" Damian ordered. "You make it seem like I can only talk to one organized crime lord and get away with it."
"I wasn't talking about that," Mike said softly. "Using me against Sonny. There's not much other than bad blood in our past."
"I've heard the story."
"Have you also heard how much I regret doing that to my son? How many times I thought about getting back into Sonny's life, but couldn't because I didn't want to do the same thing that I did the first time. I didn't think that Sonny would just accept an apology from me, so I stayed as far away from him as I possibly could." Mike wiped away the beginnings of a tear, "If I had just given it a try, and really attempted to know my son, not as the little boy that I left, but as the man that he had become, maybe things would have been different between us."
"We don't have a relationship like that," Damian said in reference to him and Sonny. "You knew that he was alive, and you didn't care. He didn't know that I was."
"Do you know that he would have been there if he did?"
"I know that he said he would be. But I don't believe it."
"How can you not?" Mike asked. "How can you not think that man is one of the best fathers alive? Look at him, Damian. Take a good look at Sonny, and how much he cares for Michael and Morgan. That was the first time he left Michael's bedside since he was checked in, and how long ago was that? At least half a day. Tell me that isn't dedication. Tell me that you can't be impressed by the fact that Sonny cares so much about Michael that he would do anything to help him."
"I am impressed, Mike. Really, I see how much Sonny loves his sons, and it makes me happy. But we can't have that, can we?"
"Why can't you?"
"Because we come from different worlds." Damian stopped himself, "Or, I thought we did."
"What are you hinting at?"
"My past, my family's past. They were just like Sonny is today. He told me. They were mobsters, people who made a life out of crime." Damian placed his face in his open hands, "I come from a life that was dedicated to crime, Mike. My father, my mother's father. Every time I turn around, someone is telling me something about my life that I never wanted to hear. One minute it's that my mom's going to die. Then that my father is alive and here, in Port Charles. Next is that my father just happens to be one of the most powerful men in the upper northeast, and I don't mean the strongman contest. Now people are telling me that crime runs through my veins no matter what? I can't take that."
"Are you saying that you can't be here?"
"I'm saying that I can't continue to be around this life unless something else goes, and the only choices are my morals or Sonny's life. I know I won't give up my beliefs, and I somehow doubt that Sonny will just give up doing what he does."
"He's given up everything to be with Michael," Mike pointed out.
"That's short-term."
"Can you be so sure?"
"Michael's going to get better!" Damian said. "I can't believe you would even think something like that. He's your grandson!"
"I'm just trying to be a realist right now, Damian," Mike said sadly. "I've seen people recover from trauma before, and a lot of times they come out just the way that they were. But Michael isn't like a lot of people. He's a little boy who understands way too much about life for someone his age. He might never get his voice back, because everything might have become too much for him."
"I won't let him stay like that."
"How are you going to help?" Mike asked. "You're not a doctor yet, they won't listen to you."
"I don't need to be a doctor to help the people I care about," Damian said defiantly.
"And Sonny doesn't always need to be a mobster. He's capable of being a loving, compassionate person. And he's very capable of being hurt by people that he cares about rejecting him. Like you just did."
"I didn't mean to make him that upset, Mike. But I can't just throw away everything that's happened."
"This might sound extremely harsh, and in a way it's meant to, but if you can't curb your grudge with Sonny, then you shouldn't be here. You're not helping anyone by constantly yelling at your father." He looked out the window, "You're certainly not helping Michael."
"You want me to leave?" Damian asked.
"I don't want you to, no. I want you and Sonny to get along, and I want my grandsons, who I care about all very deeply for, to have the best possible health."
Children's Wing, General Hospital-
Sonny still hadn't gone back into Michael's room. He needed time to himself. It wasn't that he loved his son any less, that would never be possible, but he was at ends with himself. Why couldn't he ever keep himself from ruining the few good things that he had in his life? Lily died because of his life. He couldn't save Stone. He had to give up Carly's first baby in order to save the life of the woman that he loved. He almost killed her and Morgan because of his jealousy over Alcazar. And now he had severed the relationship with his adult son. There wasn't anything that he could do to salvage that. The damage had already been done.
"I shouldn't have said that about you and Mike, Sonny. I'm sorry. Really, I am."
"I don't need your pity right now."
"You're not getting my pity," Damian said. "You're getting a genuine apology from your son. Can't you just accept that for what it is? We'll always have our differences, but that's all that they should be, our differences. Not ones caused by you and Mike, ours alone. We're all on edge, and we're all tired. You most of all. I know you hadn't left his side until you saw me."
"And I don't intend on doing it anytime soon," Sonny said.
"Go home, Sonny."
Sonny laughed, "You're giving me orders now?"
"Why would I do something like that?" Damian asked. "No, I'm giving you a suggestion. You and Carly have been here all night long. You've had people coming in and out. You need a break."
"I can sleep in the chair next to him. I don't want to leave him alone."
"You won't be, I'll stay."
Sonny turned around, "You will?"
"I've pulled all nighters at hospitals before plenty of times. Besides, my back could use a reminder to be thankful for the softness of a bed when opposed to the cold hard hospital chairs."
"This isn't like with your mother, he won't die."
Damian nodded, "I know he won't die. I won't let him, not for a long time."
"I don't feel comfortable leaving him," Sonny stated.
"He'll know that you'll come back in the morning. If he wakes up, I'll tell him. Promise."
"Why are you doing this?" Sonny asked. "Ten minutes ago we were at each others throats."
"And I'm sure that we'll play that game again, but we're forgetting that the most important thing right now has to be the boy that is in that room over there. I did it once, and I feel like the most insensitive person on the planet because of what I said to you." Damian walked towards Michael's door, "This doesn't change anything, though."
Sonny nodded, "I know it doesn't."
Getting Carly to leave her son at the hospital proved to be a difficult task. She didn't want to leave Michael, not that anyone could really blame her. To her credit, she didn't throw a fit until she got her way, as she was prone to doing. Even more amazingly, she actually succumbed to the pressures that everyone else was giving her. She was tired, everyone was. It would have been neigh impossible for her to have left had she known that it would be Damian that was going to stay with Michael for the night. For obvious reasons, she was made unaware of that decision. Bobbie covered as best she could. She still had a job to do, and she'd still be at the hospital for some time. Under the pretense that her mother would be watching Michael for the night, Carly left with Sonny. They had been at the hospital for over twelve hours, and they would be there longer if they needed it.
Courtney stayed around for a few more hours, not having been there as long as the others and still wanting to make sure that Michael was fine. It wasn't that she didn't trust Damian to watch over Michael, because she did. The big worry for her lied in the fact that Jason couldn't be there for reasons all his own. She wanted to spend as much time with Michael so that she would, in a small sense, make up for the time that her husband should have been spending with his nephew. Besides, seeing Michael happy, even if he couldn't say that he was happy, filled her with a sense of confidence in the fact that somehow everything would turn out to be fine. Before she left she made sure that Damian knew he could call her if anything happened, or if he just needed someone to switch shifts with him. Mike left with her.
When everyone was gone Michael's mood shifted from gleeful to a much more somber tone. That glisten in his eye faded, like a child opening a new present. Damian noticed the change and sighed. "You won't be alone, Michael. I promise you. They'll all be back tomorrow, they just need some rest." Michael grabbed a nearby notepad and scribbled something on the blank page, handing it to Damian. It read 'Why didn't you go?' Damian put the pad on his lap, "Someone should be with you overnight. Hospitals can be a very scary place, especially when you're all alone. I know, I've spent my fair share of nights in hospitals." Damian's mind flashed back to when he was much younger and much more innocent. "When my mom was checked into the hospital, I almost never left her side. I missed a lot of school, but I didn't care. I know she appreciated it, but she was really out of it for a long time when she was there. I'd try talking to her, trying to make her laugh, but she would just stay there with her eyes open and not answer me. It was like her body was there, but she wasn't. Even though she was there physically, and I could see her just by looking over at the bed, I felt alone. I've never felt that scared before in my life, and I don't want you to go through it if I can stop it from happening at all." Michael reached for the pad again, Damian handed it to him and waited. When Michael was finished he passed it over. 'What about school?' Damian shrugged, "I can make up classes if I have to. There are enough doctors in the world right now that they can wait for me to become one as well. I'm much more needed with you." Michael yanked the pad as a sudden thought hit his mind. When he passed it back to Damian he looked a bit worried. Damian looked at the pad 'Are you mad at me?' Damian put the pad on the table again and sat on the edge of the bed. "Michael, this isn't your fault. We don't know what's wrong with you, but it's something that will get better in time. I know you didn't mean to end up here, I know you didn't mean to make us all worry. We're not mad at you, none of us are. We all just want you to get better." Michael reached for the pad, but Damian stopped him, "The best way for you to get better is to get rested up. Try and get some sleep, okay?" Michael nodded and closed his eyes. Damian got up from the bed and grabbed a nearby magazine. It was going to be a long night. Every time he was in the hospital, they were always long nights.
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"What I do with my time and who I associate myself with is none of your concern, Sonny," Damian sneered. He didn't trust Lorenzo Alcazar either, but the man had information that he wanted, and he'd do just about anything for it.
"The hell it doesn't!" Sonny was irate. Subconsciously his mind's eye wandered, looking for a glass to throw. It took a great deal of will to resist the urge to actually find something and fling it. "You're my son, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you be around people like that!"
"Thanks, Mike," Damian muttered at his grandfather.
Mike put his hand on Damian's shoulder, "This is the right thing for you to do, Damian. You shouldn't be around Lorenzo or those like him."
"Then maybe I should leave right now," Damian said. "But where am I going to go? The only other place I go back to is home, and from what you've told me it's just like that in Los Angeles!" "What's he talking about?" Mike asked Sonny.
"Tell you about it later."
"No," Damian shook his head. "Why don't we tell Mike right now, Sonny? I mean, it's not like he won't find out eventually. And, unlike some people, I like to be the one that tells family directly about things like this."
Sonny was getting even more maddened by the minute. "How long are you going to hold that over my head?"
"Probably as long as you've held your abandonment issues over Mike's head, if not longer. I grew up in the 'Dynasty' era, trust me when I say that I know how to hold a long-standing grudge!"
Sonny turned around and walked away. If he stayed around longer, arguing with Damian, odds were that one of them, if not both, would end up doing something that they would regret. The last thing Sonny needed at that moment was to add yet another item to the ever-growing list.
Mike sighed, "You shouldn't have done that."
"Come off it, Mike!" Damian ordered. "You make it seem like I can only talk to one organized crime lord and get away with it."
"I wasn't talking about that," Mike said softly. "Using me against Sonny. There's not much other than bad blood in our past."
"I've heard the story."
"Have you also heard how much I regret doing that to my son? How many times I thought about getting back into Sonny's life, but couldn't because I didn't want to do the same thing that I did the first time. I didn't think that Sonny would just accept an apology from me, so I stayed as far away from him as I possibly could." Mike wiped away the beginnings of a tear, "If I had just given it a try, and really attempted to know my son, not as the little boy that I left, but as the man that he had become, maybe things would have been different between us."
"We don't have a relationship like that," Damian said in reference to him and Sonny. "You knew that he was alive, and you didn't care. He didn't know that I was."
"Do you know that he would have been there if he did?"
"I know that he said he would be. But I don't believe it."
"How can you not?" Mike asked. "How can you not think that man is one of the best fathers alive? Look at him, Damian. Take a good look at Sonny, and how much he cares for Michael and Morgan. That was the first time he left Michael's bedside since he was checked in, and how long ago was that? At least half a day. Tell me that isn't dedication. Tell me that you can't be impressed by the fact that Sonny cares so much about Michael that he would do anything to help him."
"I am impressed, Mike. Really, I see how much Sonny loves his sons, and it makes me happy. But we can't have that, can we?"
"Why can't you?"
"Because we come from different worlds." Damian stopped himself, "Or, I thought we did."
"What are you hinting at?"
"My past, my family's past. They were just like Sonny is today. He told me. They were mobsters, people who made a life out of crime." Damian placed his face in his open hands, "I come from a life that was dedicated to crime, Mike. My father, my mother's father. Every time I turn around, someone is telling me something about my life that I never wanted to hear. One minute it's that my mom's going to die. Then that my father is alive and here, in Port Charles. Next is that my father just happens to be one of the most powerful men in the upper northeast, and I don't mean the strongman contest. Now people are telling me that crime runs through my veins no matter what? I can't take that."
"Are you saying that you can't be here?"
"I'm saying that I can't continue to be around this life unless something else goes, and the only choices are my morals or Sonny's life. I know I won't give up my beliefs, and I somehow doubt that Sonny will just give up doing what he does."
"He's given up everything to be with Michael," Mike pointed out.
"That's short-term."
"Can you be so sure?"
"Michael's going to get better!" Damian said. "I can't believe you would even think something like that. He's your grandson!"
"I'm just trying to be a realist right now, Damian," Mike said sadly. "I've seen people recover from trauma before, and a lot of times they come out just the way that they were. But Michael isn't like a lot of people. He's a little boy who understands way too much about life for someone his age. He might never get his voice back, because everything might have become too much for him."
"I won't let him stay like that."
"How are you going to help?" Mike asked. "You're not a doctor yet, they won't listen to you."
"I don't need to be a doctor to help the people I care about," Damian said defiantly.
"And Sonny doesn't always need to be a mobster. He's capable of being a loving, compassionate person. And he's very capable of being hurt by people that he cares about rejecting him. Like you just did."
"I didn't mean to make him that upset, Mike. But I can't just throw away everything that's happened."
"This might sound extremely harsh, and in a way it's meant to, but if you can't curb your grudge with Sonny, then you shouldn't be here. You're not helping anyone by constantly yelling at your father." He looked out the window, "You're certainly not helping Michael."
"You want me to leave?" Damian asked.
"I don't want you to, no. I want you and Sonny to get along, and I want my grandsons, who I care about all very deeply for, to have the best possible health."
Children's Wing, General Hospital-
Sonny still hadn't gone back into Michael's room. He needed time to himself. It wasn't that he loved his son any less, that would never be possible, but he was at ends with himself. Why couldn't he ever keep himself from ruining the few good things that he had in his life? Lily died because of his life. He couldn't save Stone. He had to give up Carly's first baby in order to save the life of the woman that he loved. He almost killed her and Morgan because of his jealousy over Alcazar. And now he had severed the relationship with his adult son. There wasn't anything that he could do to salvage that. The damage had already been done.
"I shouldn't have said that about you and Mike, Sonny. I'm sorry. Really, I am."
"I don't need your pity right now."
"You're not getting my pity," Damian said. "You're getting a genuine apology from your son. Can't you just accept that for what it is? We'll always have our differences, but that's all that they should be, our differences. Not ones caused by you and Mike, ours alone. We're all on edge, and we're all tired. You most of all. I know you hadn't left his side until you saw me."
"And I don't intend on doing it anytime soon," Sonny said.
"Go home, Sonny."
Sonny laughed, "You're giving me orders now?"
"Why would I do something like that?" Damian asked. "No, I'm giving you a suggestion. You and Carly have been here all night long. You've had people coming in and out. You need a break."
"I can sleep in the chair next to him. I don't want to leave him alone."
"You won't be, I'll stay."
Sonny turned around, "You will?"
"I've pulled all nighters at hospitals before plenty of times. Besides, my back could use a reminder to be thankful for the softness of a bed when opposed to the cold hard hospital chairs."
"This isn't like with your mother, he won't die."
Damian nodded, "I know he won't die. I won't let him, not for a long time."
"I don't feel comfortable leaving him," Sonny stated.
"He'll know that you'll come back in the morning. If he wakes up, I'll tell him. Promise."
"Why are you doing this?" Sonny asked. "Ten minutes ago we were at each others throats."
"And I'm sure that we'll play that game again, but we're forgetting that the most important thing right now has to be the boy that is in that room over there. I did it once, and I feel like the most insensitive person on the planet because of what I said to you." Damian walked towards Michael's door, "This doesn't change anything, though."
Sonny nodded, "I know it doesn't."
Getting Carly to leave her son at the hospital proved to be a difficult task. She didn't want to leave Michael, not that anyone could really blame her. To her credit, she didn't throw a fit until she got her way, as she was prone to doing. Even more amazingly, she actually succumbed to the pressures that everyone else was giving her. She was tired, everyone was. It would have been neigh impossible for her to have left had she known that it would be Damian that was going to stay with Michael for the night. For obvious reasons, she was made unaware of that decision. Bobbie covered as best she could. She still had a job to do, and she'd still be at the hospital for some time. Under the pretense that her mother would be watching Michael for the night, Carly left with Sonny. They had been at the hospital for over twelve hours, and they would be there longer if they needed it.
Courtney stayed around for a few more hours, not having been there as long as the others and still wanting to make sure that Michael was fine. It wasn't that she didn't trust Damian to watch over Michael, because she did. The big worry for her lied in the fact that Jason couldn't be there for reasons all his own. She wanted to spend as much time with Michael so that she would, in a small sense, make up for the time that her husband should have been spending with his nephew. Besides, seeing Michael happy, even if he couldn't say that he was happy, filled her with a sense of confidence in the fact that somehow everything would turn out to be fine. Before she left she made sure that Damian knew he could call her if anything happened, or if he just needed someone to switch shifts with him. Mike left with her.
When everyone was gone Michael's mood shifted from gleeful to a much more somber tone. That glisten in his eye faded, like a child opening a new present. Damian noticed the change and sighed. "You won't be alone, Michael. I promise you. They'll all be back tomorrow, they just need some rest." Michael grabbed a nearby notepad and scribbled something on the blank page, handing it to Damian. It read 'Why didn't you go?' Damian put the pad on his lap, "Someone should be with you overnight. Hospitals can be a very scary place, especially when you're all alone. I know, I've spent my fair share of nights in hospitals." Damian's mind flashed back to when he was much younger and much more innocent. "When my mom was checked into the hospital, I almost never left her side. I missed a lot of school, but I didn't care. I know she appreciated it, but she was really out of it for a long time when she was there. I'd try talking to her, trying to make her laugh, but she would just stay there with her eyes open and not answer me. It was like her body was there, but she wasn't. Even though she was there physically, and I could see her just by looking over at the bed, I felt alone. I've never felt that scared before in my life, and I don't want you to go through it if I can stop it from happening at all." Michael reached for the pad again, Damian handed it to him and waited. When Michael was finished he passed it over. 'What about school?' Damian shrugged, "I can make up classes if I have to. There are enough doctors in the world right now that they can wait for me to become one as well. I'm much more needed with you." Michael yanked the pad as a sudden thought hit his mind. When he passed it back to Damian he looked a bit worried. Damian looked at the pad 'Are you mad at me?' Damian put the pad on the table again and sat on the edge of the bed. "Michael, this isn't your fault. We don't know what's wrong with you, but it's something that will get better in time. I know you didn't mean to end up here, I know you didn't mean to make us all worry. We're not mad at you, none of us are. We all just want you to get better." Michael reached for the pad, but Damian stopped him, "The best way for you to get better is to get rested up. Try and get some sleep, okay?" Michael nodded and closed his eyes. Damian got up from the bed and grabbed a nearby magazine. It was going to be a long night. Every time he was in the hospital, they were always long nights.
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