Notes: Curse that infernal Sage! She ruined a fleeting moment of the ways of GQ!!! Everything felt right and then she had to go and screw it up. Accursed, vile being.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

There wasn't a word said all the way back to the penthouse from the police station. Damian wasn't entirely sure what he could say. Anything he could have said would possibly be used against him unless he was in the safety of his father's home. The same could be said for Sonny and Carly. Anything that they said to Damian could easily be used against the boy. The only way to keep him safe from prying eyes and ears would be to get home as fast as they could and talk about it then.

Of course, even with all the problems that were happening to him, Damian was still much more concerned with how Maxie was doing. She had gone through recent traumatic times and might not have been in the most stable mindset. He thought about calling her, but again he stopped himself deciding that she would talk to him when she felt it was time. Plus, with her father as the commissioner there was no doubt in Damian's mind that Mac knew what had happened at the pier and that he would be well aware of the fact that Damian was indeed involved with the entire situation. Mac would likely use everything that he could to bring Damian down and prove to himself that Damian wasn't worthy of his daughters affections. Damian certainly hoped that he would be found innocent of the crime that he had nothing to do with. All he wanted to do was get some rest, but he knew that wouldn't be an option.

Jason was still on the couch. He hadn't moved since Damian worked on his leg, or at least he didn't appear to have moved at all. He still sat in the same position. His bandage was just starting to show a hint of the small amount of blood that still trickled out of the wound. At least it wasn't bleeding as much as it was when Jason had gotten himself shot, which was a good sign for all involved. "How'd it go?" Jason asked. It was obvious that he wasn't asking Damian. He was asking Sonny and Carly.

Sonny answered, "They're trying to use circumstantial evidence against Damian and put him away for killing all of those people."

"I was able to walk away, isn't that a good thing?" Damian asked.

"You were only able to walk out of that room without being thrown in one of the cells because I was there to point out that they had no reason to hold you."

"Sorry," Damian muttered. "I've never been put in an interrogation room before I came here."

"I have," Sonny said. "You're lucky."

"Lucky how?"

"Lucky that I was able to get you out of there," Sonny sat down. "What were you thinking? You should have known that your wallet had fallen out of your jacket."

"I was a little too preoccupied seeing my father shoot a man in the chest after watching my uncle get shot to notice that something so unimportant like my wallet had managed to fall out of my jacket," Damian poured himself some water. He was thirsty and very afraid of what was going to happen.

"How's Michael?" Carly asked Jason.

"He tried to stay up and wait for you to come home, but he couldn't. He fell asleep on the couch but I called Courtney over and had her carry him up the stairs. I would have done it, but I don't think I should be putting any extra weight on my leg right now."

"Is Courtney still up there with him?" Carly kept herself from looking at Jason's wound. He was like her Superman, if he was hurt it made her feel less secure about everything. He would recover... this time.

"Yeah, she figured that she should stay up there with him in case he woke up."

Carly smiled, "Thanks for watching him, Jase." She walked past him, putting her hand gently on his shoulder for a moment before heading up the stairs.

"You see why I have to do everything the way I do it now?" Sonny asked. "If I slip up, even a little bit, someone will come around and find a way to send me or the people that I care about into a downward spiral."

"I'm sorry, dad!" Damian exclaimed. "I'm sorry that I can't be as effective in keeping myself one step ahead of the law as you can. I never thought I would need to be taught in the ways of covering up a shooting scene."

"That's your problem. No matter how smart you are you never think about what could happen."

"What is going to happen?" Damian wondered. "Am I going to jail?"

"Not if I can help it," Sonny said. "You had nothing to do with what happened earlier today."

"But you did."

"That's my business," Sonny snapped back. "You should have never been there to begin with. You should have just kept on walking home like we told you."

"I wasn't going to stand around and turn a blind eye to the fact that I heard guns being fired in an area that I knew you two were at," Damian gripped the glass tightly. "I had to make sure that you were all right. I couldn't stand being the one that would have to come here and tell Michael that you were dead, dad. That you were never coming home again."

"I don't need your protection," Sonny's voice was filled with regret. He could have gotten his son killed because Damian was too busy worrying about him. "I don't need anyone's protection."

"You needed Uncle Jason's today," Damian pointed out. "If he wouldn't have pushed you out of the way that bullet would have went right through you and you probably would have died."

"It's a risk that I take every time I go outside and conduct my business, Damian. I never know for sure if I'm going to be coming home."

"I want to be sure that you always come home," Damian admitted. "Is it so wrong that I want to keep you safe?"

"No, it isn't. But it is wrong that you're willing to throw yourself away in order to keep me safe. That I couldn't survive. I can keep myself as safe as I possibly can, but if I failed one of you. If I failed you... again, like I did when I let you grow up thinking that you didn't have a father who cared about you... I couldn't stand that. I couldn't live with myself if I had to come to terms with the knowledge that you sacrificed yourself for me."

"You didn't fail me as a father growing up," Damian had no trouble admitting that. He was very aware of the fact that Sonny didn't even know that he existed. He held the fact that Sonny lied to him against his father, but not the fact that Sonny couldn't be there for him growing up.

"I failed myself," Sonny confessed again. "You know how I feel about being the type of father that my father was."

"Please stop beating yourself up for Grandpa's mistakes," Damian was almost begging. But he knew that begging his father to do anything wasn't going to get any results. Sonny hated beggars, they reminded him too much of Mike. "Your father is the person that he is and you're the person that you are."

"I can't..."

"I know. As much as I try to think that you can stop beating yourself up over your childhood, I know that there is some part of you that will never let go of it, dad. I respect that, but I still wish it could be otherwise."

"So do I."

Damian nodded, "But you see how I feel then, right? You see that there are things about each of us that we can never give up no matter how hard we try. I'm always going to worry about my family, dad. I'm always going to put myself in the line of fire if I think I can even stand a chance at keeping anybody that I care about safe. If it means that I end up being taken away in a body bag, then so be it. I can take that last breath with the knowledge that I saved someone I loved and not have any regrets."

Sonny had immense respect for his son, but he still thought that the way Damian lived his life was foolish and far too simplistic. "Must everything be so black and white with you, Damian?"

"If I let it get any more complicated I couldn't get up in the morning," Damian sighed. "I've worked my entire life building up the same kind of wall that you have, dad. It's the only thing that lets me sleep and night and sometimes keeps me from having nightmares. If I let myself go, if I let that part of me that I keep sheltered away so that no one can hurt it, I might not survive."

"Would you give it to Ana?"

Damian's eye showed his pain. "Why do you think I keep it from everyone now, dad? My mother was my life, the one person that I could give myself to entirely. She died and I almost died with her. I can't give myself up to anyone like that anymore, not even to myself. If I have to go through that kind of pain again... I might not get so lucky. I'm not nearly as strong as people seem to think I am. They don't know what goes through my head when I'm acting like everything in life is just perfect. A very few select people do, but that's not a number that increases very often."

"You can't blame yourself for what happened to your mother the same way I can't blame myself for the childhood that I had," Sonny sighed. "I know how you feel, though. It's hard thinking about the mistakes that you've made in the past and trying to shape yourself into a better person. It might be impossible."

"It might be," Damian agreed. "But anything is possible, I suppose." Damian headed towards his room.

"Damian..." When Sonny called his name out, the boy stopped. "You know that you can't tell anyone about what happened today, right? You can't tell Maxie, you can't tell Elizabeth, you can't tell Bobbie. The only people that you can talk to about this are me, Jason, Carly, and Courtney. We're the only people that you can trust with this information."

"I know who I can trust," Damian said without looking at his father. "Goodnight."

Sonny heard the door close and he looked at Jason, "You think he's right... about me?"

"Sonny, you have your own motives for doing everything," Jason turned his cold but compassionate blue eyes on his best friend. "You're the only one who truly understands how the things that go on in your head work."

"But do you think that he's right about me holding myself in the past too much?"

"Some people's pasts affect who they are in the future," Jason chose his words carefully. His past had next to nothing to do with the person that he was now. "Your step-father put you through hell, Sonny. You learned from that period of your life and you've used it to become a better person than you could have been."

"Do you think he sees that?" Sonny asked.

"Whom? Damian?"

"Yeah," Sonny lied partially. His son was one of the people that he was wondering about. But the true person he was wondering about was God.

"I can't answer that question," Jason admitted.

"No," Sonny quietly mused to himself. "I guess you can't..."