Note: 100 Chapters! Let us celebrate, my readers! I would like to thank you
all for continually putting up with my story and supporting it in the ways
that you do. Much love from me to you! Let's keep this going, shall we?
Although, if it goes on for 100 more chapters... that'd probably be very
bad. Yes, very bad indeed.
Story-
Corinthos Household-
Sonny sat on the couch, brooding. He was doing much more than that, though. He was running through ways in his head that would allow him to keep his son's name clean. He wanted to keep it legal, for Damian's sake, but he knew that if it came down to it, Sonny would do anything to get the result he wanted. Damian would possibly hate him again. He could push himself away from Sonny once more. It could again cause Michael some considerable trauma. Sonny wanted none of that, but if he had to do it in order to protect a member of his family... the ends justified the means.
He had so many enemies. Without even running down the list of people that could attempt to bring him down he knew who would be at the top of that list. Alcazar, Ric, and Baldwin. They were the only ones in the immediate area that could stage such a show. But at the same time, Asp's return made Sonny cautious. Would there be other people that were trying to strike him down from the shadows? People that he didn't even know were around? Was he really that big of a target now that he couldn't do anything to keep his family safe?
No. Sonny refused to believe that he could ever fail his family like that. He lived his life by certain preconceptions that allowed him to function without rolling into a ball in the corner of a room and babbling like a madman. If Sonny, for even a brief moment, truly believed that he could fail his family, it would break him. The other times that he had snapped he had managed to come back, but he wasn't entirely too sure if he could come back from something caused by his own extreme feelings of insecurity. He wanted to ask Jason to keep an eye out on things for him, but Jason wasn't exactly the best field agent at the moment. Jason was hurt because Sonny wasn't as sharp as he once was.
Maybe he should have just stayed out of the business like he originally intended. Carly had been so understanding. He got out of it because of what he did to her, and he put himself back in because of a child that wasn't even hers. Maybe that was why she loathed Damian so much. It was certainly a possibility, although it wasn't the only one. It probably wasn't even the most likely. Carly just did not like it when people invaded her perceived personal space. Damian came and took a chunk of her life away from her, there was no reason that she should have just let it happen. It was over, though. She should have gotten over it and adjusted like everyone else.
Like always, Carly had to be different. Like always, Carly had to be difficult. It was one of her more endearing qualities to Sonny, but it was also something that made him dislike her when they were enemies.
Like always, Carly knew when her husband wasn't exactly in the most comfortable state of mind. She walked over and placed her arms around his shoulders, embracing him in a hug that wasn't tight, but was still very loving. "You look tense, Sonny."
"I've got a lot on my mind."
"I know you do," Carly moved away from Sonny for a moment as she walked by him and sat next to him on the couch. "You're going to fix this."
"How can you be so certain?"
"Because you fix everything," Carly said with a smile. "There's nothing that you can't do."
Sonny laughed, "I wish I shared your confidence in me."
"Sonny, we all know that he's innocent."
"But I'm not."
Carly snickered, "You're a lot of things, but you haven't been innocent since you were in diapers."
"You know what I mean, Carly," Sonny stated sternly. "I'm the reason that he's in trouble right now. I made a mistake that got Jason hurt. If Jason hadn't have gotten shot in the knee Damian wouldn't have needed to help me pick him up and he would have never dropped the wallet that the police found."
"You're doing it again," Carly said.
Sonny looked at her, "Doing what?"
"Trying to change the world, Trying to do the impossible. Trying to fix the past even though you can't. Sonny, what happened can't be changed. You need to stop dwelling on the events of last night and work towards getting your son out of the fire. They haven't even made charges yet."
"That won't stop Baldwin and my brother," Sonny commented bitterly.
"I know," Carly said, with a tinge of sadness.
"I need to think of a way to get Damian out of the suspicion that he's under and keep myself out as well," Sonny said. "It won't be easy."
"Nothing's ever easy for us, Sonny," Carly noted. "It's part of the game."
"Maybe I'm tired of playing the game by their rules."
"You never played the game by anyone's rules but your own," Carly shook her head. "You need to do something for yourself, Sonny."
"What do you mean?" Sonny wondered.
"Go do something with Michael and Morgan," Carly suggested.
"Why don't we all do that?" Sonny asked with a slight smile. If there was one thing that would bring his attitude up considerably it was spending time with the family that he loved so much. It included his wife and his son, but he knew that there were some things that would always remain some faint hope for him. Carly and Damian's acceptance of one another was very high on that list. It was only a smidge more likely than he and Ric becoming close like he and Courtney had. In other words, it was basically an unnoticeable tick away from impossible.
Carly shook her head, "You know I can't do that."
"No, Carly, I don't know you can't do that."
Carly turned away for a moment, "Michael knows what is going on, Sonny. He knows that something is wrong with Damian and he doesn't know exactly what it is. He's going to have questions that he needs to have answered and he needs someone to answer them that can give him the honest answers that he needs to hear. I can't be that person. I'm sorry, I wish I could, but I just can't."
"You can't even try, for his sake?" Sonny asked.
"If I tried to lie to my son and he found out it would hurt him more than being honest ever could," Carly knew that Sonny would understand what she was saying. After all, his lie had destroyed his relationship with Damian for a time. She had hoped that it would never actually recover. She was wrong. She hated being wrong. "I can't destroy my relationship with my child like that." Her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth. "Sonny, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
Sonny put his hand up, "I know you didn't."
Carly was angry at herself now. She shouldn't have been so verbally insensitive towards her husband at that time. She didn't like Damian, she never hid that fact, but she saw that Sonny loved his oldest child and she didn't want to take that love away from him now. She had at a time, but she wasn't that person anymore. "Please, Sonny. Take the boys out for a little while. I know how much you glow when you walk around town holding Michael's hand and holding Morgan in your arm. Michael needs to do something happy for once anyway."
"What are you going to do while we're gone, Carly?" Sonny asked.
Carly smiled, "Take a long bubble bath while I have the house to myself for once!" She sounded like she had won the lottery. It wasn't that far from the truth. There were rare fleeting moments that were few and far between when Carly could just take the chance to relax in her home. She would take them the minute they came up, though.
"I've put you through so much," Sonny kissed her on the cheek. "I'll make it up to you."
She made a sound of approval, "You'd better."
"Carly?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think that there will ever be a time when..."
She knew what the question was. "I don't know, Sonny. I can accept what happened between you and Lily, and I don't have to worry about Brenda coming back anytime soon. Damian's going to be a constant reminder of what you had with his mother."
"I didn't have anything with her," Sonny said sadly. "It should have never happened."
"You never talked about her before," Carly grabbed his hand. "Sonny, you've told me things that you never told anyone else before. Why didn't you tell me about Ana-Maria?"
"I forgot about her."
"You never forget someone that you have..."
"Not if it means something," This time it was Sonny who cut in during the conversation. "With Ana it meant nothing. She was attractive, yes, but she was innocent and I should not have stolen something that was so precious to her. I didn't want to do it."
"You didn't have a choice."
"There's always a choice, I was just too much of a coward to make it."
Carly hugged him. "You're one of the strongest people that I know, Sonny. You made the right choice. If you wouldn't have done what Scully wanted, you would have never lived. I would have never met you. I couldn't live with not knowing you, with not having you in my life."
"I don't know what I'd do without you," Sonny kissed his wife.
When they were finished, Carly smirked, "You'd have a lot more closet space."
"I can put up with all the clothes you own, as long as I get the chance to see you wear every outfit," Sonny grinned.
"You have more fun taking it off anyway," Carly replied coyly.
Sonny gave a brief nod, "I'm going to go and get the boys ready."
Carly watched Sonny go up the stairs, the smile on her face. She had a feeling that maybe things weren't as bad as she lead them to believe.
Outside Kelly's-
"You're going to trust me, right?" Damian asked Maxie.
"Of course! How could you even ask me that?"
"I just don't know who I can count on right now," Damian admitted.
"You can always count on me to be there for you when you need it, Damian. You've helped me out so many times, it's the least I can do."
"Maxie... if you ever feel that you can't do it anymore. Please, tell me. I don't think I could take hurting you because I wanted to keep you around."
"You'd never hut me."
"Not on purpose," Damian said softly.
Maxie put her finger on his lip, "Stop right there. You're not going to go into depression mode on me, you hear me?"
"Is that an order?" Damian replied with a smirk.
"Yes, an order from your girlfriend."
"I didn't think you'd be the controlling type."
"I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?" Maxie asked.
"You keep things interesting. That's for sure."
She giggled, "Thanks."
"Maxie," Damian lost his comedic side. Maxie could tell because he looked a lot like Sonny did. It was scary in some ways, but she knew that he only got like that on rare occasions. Normally he would always be the Damian that she fell in love with. "I don't want you trying to help me by looking around for information, okay?"
"I want to help!"
"You're helping the most that you can by being there for me and giving me your trust. Please, Maxie. I don't know why I'm being set up like I am, but I don't want you being put in danger. Promise me that you'll stay safe!"
Maxie saw his sincerity. She couldn't deny him something so simple. "Okay, I promise."
"I should get home," Damian said. "If you need me, call."
"If you need me," Maxie put an emphasis on the 'you' and 'me.' She wanted to show that she could be there for him in the ways that he had been there for her. "Call."
With a brief kiss on the lips, Damian walked away. "I will."
Story-
Corinthos Household-
Sonny sat on the couch, brooding. He was doing much more than that, though. He was running through ways in his head that would allow him to keep his son's name clean. He wanted to keep it legal, for Damian's sake, but he knew that if it came down to it, Sonny would do anything to get the result he wanted. Damian would possibly hate him again. He could push himself away from Sonny once more. It could again cause Michael some considerable trauma. Sonny wanted none of that, but if he had to do it in order to protect a member of his family... the ends justified the means.
He had so many enemies. Without even running down the list of people that could attempt to bring him down he knew who would be at the top of that list. Alcazar, Ric, and Baldwin. They were the only ones in the immediate area that could stage such a show. But at the same time, Asp's return made Sonny cautious. Would there be other people that were trying to strike him down from the shadows? People that he didn't even know were around? Was he really that big of a target now that he couldn't do anything to keep his family safe?
No. Sonny refused to believe that he could ever fail his family like that. He lived his life by certain preconceptions that allowed him to function without rolling into a ball in the corner of a room and babbling like a madman. If Sonny, for even a brief moment, truly believed that he could fail his family, it would break him. The other times that he had snapped he had managed to come back, but he wasn't entirely too sure if he could come back from something caused by his own extreme feelings of insecurity. He wanted to ask Jason to keep an eye out on things for him, but Jason wasn't exactly the best field agent at the moment. Jason was hurt because Sonny wasn't as sharp as he once was.
Maybe he should have just stayed out of the business like he originally intended. Carly had been so understanding. He got out of it because of what he did to her, and he put himself back in because of a child that wasn't even hers. Maybe that was why she loathed Damian so much. It was certainly a possibility, although it wasn't the only one. It probably wasn't even the most likely. Carly just did not like it when people invaded her perceived personal space. Damian came and took a chunk of her life away from her, there was no reason that she should have just let it happen. It was over, though. She should have gotten over it and adjusted like everyone else.
Like always, Carly had to be different. Like always, Carly had to be difficult. It was one of her more endearing qualities to Sonny, but it was also something that made him dislike her when they were enemies.
Like always, Carly knew when her husband wasn't exactly in the most comfortable state of mind. She walked over and placed her arms around his shoulders, embracing him in a hug that wasn't tight, but was still very loving. "You look tense, Sonny."
"I've got a lot on my mind."
"I know you do," Carly moved away from Sonny for a moment as she walked by him and sat next to him on the couch. "You're going to fix this."
"How can you be so certain?"
"Because you fix everything," Carly said with a smile. "There's nothing that you can't do."
Sonny laughed, "I wish I shared your confidence in me."
"Sonny, we all know that he's innocent."
"But I'm not."
Carly snickered, "You're a lot of things, but you haven't been innocent since you were in diapers."
"You know what I mean, Carly," Sonny stated sternly. "I'm the reason that he's in trouble right now. I made a mistake that got Jason hurt. If Jason hadn't have gotten shot in the knee Damian wouldn't have needed to help me pick him up and he would have never dropped the wallet that the police found."
"You're doing it again," Carly said.
Sonny looked at her, "Doing what?"
"Trying to change the world, Trying to do the impossible. Trying to fix the past even though you can't. Sonny, what happened can't be changed. You need to stop dwelling on the events of last night and work towards getting your son out of the fire. They haven't even made charges yet."
"That won't stop Baldwin and my brother," Sonny commented bitterly.
"I know," Carly said, with a tinge of sadness.
"I need to think of a way to get Damian out of the suspicion that he's under and keep myself out as well," Sonny said. "It won't be easy."
"Nothing's ever easy for us, Sonny," Carly noted. "It's part of the game."
"Maybe I'm tired of playing the game by their rules."
"You never played the game by anyone's rules but your own," Carly shook her head. "You need to do something for yourself, Sonny."
"What do you mean?" Sonny wondered.
"Go do something with Michael and Morgan," Carly suggested.
"Why don't we all do that?" Sonny asked with a slight smile. If there was one thing that would bring his attitude up considerably it was spending time with the family that he loved so much. It included his wife and his son, but he knew that there were some things that would always remain some faint hope for him. Carly and Damian's acceptance of one another was very high on that list. It was only a smidge more likely than he and Ric becoming close like he and Courtney had. In other words, it was basically an unnoticeable tick away from impossible.
Carly shook her head, "You know I can't do that."
"No, Carly, I don't know you can't do that."
Carly turned away for a moment, "Michael knows what is going on, Sonny. He knows that something is wrong with Damian and he doesn't know exactly what it is. He's going to have questions that he needs to have answered and he needs someone to answer them that can give him the honest answers that he needs to hear. I can't be that person. I'm sorry, I wish I could, but I just can't."
"You can't even try, for his sake?" Sonny asked.
"If I tried to lie to my son and he found out it would hurt him more than being honest ever could," Carly knew that Sonny would understand what she was saying. After all, his lie had destroyed his relationship with Damian for a time. She had hoped that it would never actually recover. She was wrong. She hated being wrong. "I can't destroy my relationship with my child like that." Her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth. "Sonny, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
Sonny put his hand up, "I know you didn't."
Carly was angry at herself now. She shouldn't have been so verbally insensitive towards her husband at that time. She didn't like Damian, she never hid that fact, but she saw that Sonny loved his oldest child and she didn't want to take that love away from him now. She had at a time, but she wasn't that person anymore. "Please, Sonny. Take the boys out for a little while. I know how much you glow when you walk around town holding Michael's hand and holding Morgan in your arm. Michael needs to do something happy for once anyway."
"What are you going to do while we're gone, Carly?" Sonny asked.
Carly smiled, "Take a long bubble bath while I have the house to myself for once!" She sounded like she had won the lottery. It wasn't that far from the truth. There were rare fleeting moments that were few and far between when Carly could just take the chance to relax in her home. She would take them the minute they came up, though.
"I've put you through so much," Sonny kissed her on the cheek. "I'll make it up to you."
She made a sound of approval, "You'd better."
"Carly?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think that there will ever be a time when..."
She knew what the question was. "I don't know, Sonny. I can accept what happened between you and Lily, and I don't have to worry about Brenda coming back anytime soon. Damian's going to be a constant reminder of what you had with his mother."
"I didn't have anything with her," Sonny said sadly. "It should have never happened."
"You never talked about her before," Carly grabbed his hand. "Sonny, you've told me things that you never told anyone else before. Why didn't you tell me about Ana-Maria?"
"I forgot about her."
"You never forget someone that you have..."
"Not if it means something," This time it was Sonny who cut in during the conversation. "With Ana it meant nothing. She was attractive, yes, but she was innocent and I should not have stolen something that was so precious to her. I didn't want to do it."
"You didn't have a choice."
"There's always a choice, I was just too much of a coward to make it."
Carly hugged him. "You're one of the strongest people that I know, Sonny. You made the right choice. If you wouldn't have done what Scully wanted, you would have never lived. I would have never met you. I couldn't live with not knowing you, with not having you in my life."
"I don't know what I'd do without you," Sonny kissed his wife.
When they were finished, Carly smirked, "You'd have a lot more closet space."
"I can put up with all the clothes you own, as long as I get the chance to see you wear every outfit," Sonny grinned.
"You have more fun taking it off anyway," Carly replied coyly.
Sonny gave a brief nod, "I'm going to go and get the boys ready."
Carly watched Sonny go up the stairs, the smile on her face. She had a feeling that maybe things weren't as bad as she lead them to believe.
Outside Kelly's-
"You're going to trust me, right?" Damian asked Maxie.
"Of course! How could you even ask me that?"
"I just don't know who I can count on right now," Damian admitted.
"You can always count on me to be there for you when you need it, Damian. You've helped me out so many times, it's the least I can do."
"Maxie... if you ever feel that you can't do it anymore. Please, tell me. I don't think I could take hurting you because I wanted to keep you around."
"You'd never hut me."
"Not on purpose," Damian said softly.
Maxie put her finger on his lip, "Stop right there. You're not going to go into depression mode on me, you hear me?"
"Is that an order?" Damian replied with a smirk.
"Yes, an order from your girlfriend."
"I didn't think you'd be the controlling type."
"I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?" Maxie asked.
"You keep things interesting. That's for sure."
She giggled, "Thanks."
"Maxie," Damian lost his comedic side. Maxie could tell because he looked a lot like Sonny did. It was scary in some ways, but she knew that he only got like that on rare occasions. Normally he would always be the Damian that she fell in love with. "I don't want you trying to help me by looking around for information, okay?"
"I want to help!"
"You're helping the most that you can by being there for me and giving me your trust. Please, Maxie. I don't know why I'm being set up like I am, but I don't want you being put in danger. Promise me that you'll stay safe!"
Maxie saw his sincerity. She couldn't deny him something so simple. "Okay, I promise."
"I should get home," Damian said. "If you need me, call."
"If you need me," Maxie put an emphasis on the 'you' and 'me.' She wanted to show that she could be there for him in the ways that he had been there for her. "Call."
With a brief kiss on the lips, Damian walked away. "I will."