General Hospital-
Michael, for once in his life, hadn't protested about getting into the bath. His reasoning was simple: if it meant that he could see his big brother, who he knew wasn't exactly in the best shape of his life, then there was nothing that he wouldn't do in order to make it happen. He thought about getting dressed up, but Carly and Courtney put a stop to that. The hospital was no place for a suit, unless Sonny was there, since it was all he wore.
To his credit, Michael did not cry at all on the way to the hospital. He was rather quiet, asking only a few questions aloud, but that did not mean that he didn't have millions of questions running around in his head. He was worried about what was going to happen. He wondered how much of it was his fault. If he had just stayed with Damian instead of going ahead nothing would have happened, they both would have been safe. Everyone was trying to tell him that what had happened wasn't his fault, but Michael didn't believe that it was the truth. How could he? Michael knew that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was the target of the truck. He should have been worried about himself, but he knew that his parents and his family would find a way to protect him no matter what. That was they way that they worked. Everything revolved around keeping him and his brother safe... his little brother, at least. Why hadn't they done the same things for Damian? Michael knew that Damian was older, almost as old as Courtney, but he should have still been protected and he wasn't. Even though he knew that it was almost all his fault, that didn't mean that he didn't think that there was something that Sonny could have done to fix the problem before it became a problem. He wasn't angry at Sonny, though. He knew that his father would have done something if he had been aware. Michael just wished that they were more aware than they had been the night before. Everything would have been different.
When they walked onto the floor where Damian was being contained, Michael was holding Carly's hand as tight as he could. He knew that he told her that if he was feeling afraid or if he wanted to go home he'd say it and Carly would find a way to get him back, but he didn't want to leave at all. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't scared. The fact that he was in the hospital, a place that he knew his Uncle Jason, one of the strongest people that he knew, hated didn't help either.
"Courtney," Mike saw his daughter and the rest of his family from the waiting area. He got up and smiled, hugging his daughter, "Hi, princess."
"Dad?" Courtney was surprised that Mike was around. Sonny and Mike being alone together often didn't end up being something that people wanted to see. "How long have you been here?"
"A few hours," Mike said. "I couldn't sleep, so I just came to the hospital, in case there was any news."
"Thank you, Mike," Carly said to her father-in-law. "It's nice to know that someone was here in case something happened and Sonny couldn't make a phone call."
"Yeah, no problem."
"Grandpa..." Michael came out from behind Carly.
Mike didn't expect Michael to be anywhere near the hospital for a very long time. The fact that Michael was around made things harder for Mike. Seeing his crimson haired grandson, who he knew was more than well aware of what was going on, made Mike nearly break down. But he stayed strong, more for Michael than for himself. "Hey, kiddo. Come here." As Michael walked over, Mike got down on his knees and hugged Michael. "You afraid?"
"A little bit, yeah," Michael admitted. "Aren't you?"
Mike nodded, "I'm afraid, too. But that doesn't mean that something bad is going to happen, you know? Sometimes, when the people that we love are in danger or hurt, we worry anyways, because we love them so much that we just automatically think that something really bad is going to happen to them. We can't think that right now, though. We have to stay positive. Can you do that for me?"
"I can try..."
"That's better than nothing," Mike got up, rubbing Michael's hair with his hand gently. "Sonny will be glad to know that you've come."
"Where is he?" Carly asked, looking around and not seeing Sonny anywhere.
"We've been waiting for awhile since they took Damian in for some tests. You know Sonny, if he's waiting for more than five minutes for information then he's been waiting too long. I managed to get him to wait a little bit longer, but in the end he acted like we knew he would and decided that if no one was going to tell him something he was going to find someone and make them tell him."
Carly shook her head, "He couldn't be patient..."
"Could you?" Mike asked. "If things were different... wouldn't you be looking for answers right away?"
Carly looked down at her child and thought about it. If Michael was in the position that Damian was in, if it were Michael that was being looked at and probed, she wouldn't be able to stay calm. She'd like to think that she would have been able to do it, but she knew that in the end her motherly instincts would just take over and she wouldn't be able to control herself. "How long has he been gone?"
"Not even 10 minutes," Mike noticed how Carly didn't actually answer the question, but he knew that she had thought of an answer in her head. The answer was apparent, she would be acting the same way. What saddened Mike was that, when he was their age, when Sonny and Courtney were the age that Michael was, or even Damian, if something like that had happened, Mike wouldn't have been around for them. He knew there were plenty of reasons that Sonny still couldn't be close to him as a father, that they would barely be something of friends, and he was looking at one of those reasons at that very moment. Mike wondered what he was, why he allowed himself to become the type of person that he was when he was younger and he didn't have any good reasons or excuses, he was just stupid.
"Has Maxie been here today?" Courtney asked. She couldn't forget that Maxie was still the one that Damian loved, and that Maxie was the one who took everything harder than the rest, even harder than Michael. She didn't know about the argument that they had a few hours before the accident, though.
"I haven't seen her," Mike recalled taking the girls home the night before. "When I dropped her and Georgie off at their house I could still tell that she was in shock. I hope that she's managed to get over it, and hopefully come to terms with what happened. She'll be here later today, I'm almost certain of it."
Elsewhere in the hospital-
How many ignorant fools did the hospital have on their payroll? That was the question that was constantly running through Sonny's mind. He had asked over a dozen various doctors and nurses, even candy-strippers for some information, any information. He wasn't getting anything, and it was starting to make him mad. To be more precise, he was already mad, he was starting to get irate.
When one of the staffers walked past him, Sonny grabbed her by the wrist. She jumped a little. Sonny calmed himself down a little, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm looking for some information on my son. Damian Cor..." Sonny stopped himself. Even though Damian was calling Sonny 'dad,' he still hadn't taken the rightful last name that belonged to him. "Zuniga. Damian Zuniga."
The nurse stayed silent for a moment, "He's the one that was in the hit and run last night, wasn't he?"
"Yes," Sonny replied. "The doctors have taken him into an examination room, but they've had him in there for such a long time that I just want to know how much longer I'm going to have to wait."
"I'm sorry, but that isn't my area of the hospital to take care of," She tried to sound both polite and sympathetic at the same time. She knew who Sonny Corinthos was, she didn't want him angry at her. "Maybe you should check the nurses' station. They have all the files for everyone on the floor and the hospital."
"I was just there!" Sonny declared. "They haven't told me anything that I didn't already know!"
She backed away slightly, "I'm sorry about what happened to your son, sir, but there isn't anything that I can do to help you. I'm sure that if you just wait in the waiting area someone will contact you with the information when it becomes available." Without giving Sonny a chance to even make a response, or shoot her, the woman scampered off.
Sonny punched the wall, "What the hell do I have to do in order to get some answers?"
"There you are..."
Sonny turned around, "Courtney?"
His little sister had been looking around the hospital for him, knowing full well that an angry Sonny was a considerably more dangerous Sonny. "Come on, Sonny, there's nothing that we can do other than wait."
"I hate waiting," Sonny replied. "I want the answers that I need and I want them right now."
"Angering the staff is only going to make them keep more secrets from you, Sonny." Courtney was trying to be rational, knowing that it wasn't going to go over well with Sonny. There was, after all, no chance that Sonny would actually be reasonable about the situation. Sonny was capable of many things, being rational wasn't one of them. "Just come back with me, please."
"They took him away..."
"To help him."
"But they're not telling me anything."
"They'll tell you, they'll tell us all, when they have some answers."
Waiting Area-
Somehow, Courtney had managed to appeal to Sonny's senses. It was a huge victory, although it wasn't the type that she would brag about. They walked towards the waiting area together, where the rest of the family was waiting.
Michael saw his father and got out of the chair, "Daddy!"
As Michael was heading towards him, Sonny muttered to his sister, "What's Michael doing here?"
Courtney tried to sound as silent as possible, "Michael already knows what's going on, Sonny. Keeping him away from the problem isn't going to make him any less aware of the severity."
"Still... he shouldn't be here."
"Do you want to be the one to tell him that he can't be here?" Courtney asked.
Sonny knew that he didn't want to be that person. "Hey, buddy."
"Did you find anything out yet?" Michael asked.
"No, not yet," Sonny said. "I'm sorry, Michael, I've failed you."
Michael shook his head, "You didn't fail me, daddy. You're trying your hardest to help Damian now. You couldn't have known what was going on. It's not your fault." Michael was lying to himself and lying to his father, but he didn't want to hurt Sonny's feelings. Lying was okay when it didn't hurt anyone, right? Damian said that it wasn't... Michael still loved his father too much to express his concerns. "He'll be okay, I know it. He'll come back to us..."
Sonny picked Michael up and gave him a big hug. He didn't know that Michael was going to cheer him up so much. Maybe it was because of his own optimism, but when he heard his son say that everything was going to be okay, he believed it for some reason. He only hoped that, for Michael's sake more than anyone else's, the boy was right.
"I'm glad that more of your family has showed up, Sonny," Monica came from one of the ends of the hospital.
"Monica..."
"We've finished the tests," Monica's single sentence held so much weight on everyone. They all tried to read her face, but she was keeping it blank. Was it good, or bad?
Michael, for once in his life, hadn't protested about getting into the bath. His reasoning was simple: if it meant that he could see his big brother, who he knew wasn't exactly in the best shape of his life, then there was nothing that he wouldn't do in order to make it happen. He thought about getting dressed up, but Carly and Courtney put a stop to that. The hospital was no place for a suit, unless Sonny was there, since it was all he wore.
To his credit, Michael did not cry at all on the way to the hospital. He was rather quiet, asking only a few questions aloud, but that did not mean that he didn't have millions of questions running around in his head. He was worried about what was going to happen. He wondered how much of it was his fault. If he had just stayed with Damian instead of going ahead nothing would have happened, they both would have been safe. Everyone was trying to tell him that what had happened wasn't his fault, but Michael didn't believe that it was the truth. How could he? Michael knew that there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was the target of the truck. He should have been worried about himself, but he knew that his parents and his family would find a way to protect him no matter what. That was they way that they worked. Everything revolved around keeping him and his brother safe... his little brother, at least. Why hadn't they done the same things for Damian? Michael knew that Damian was older, almost as old as Courtney, but he should have still been protected and he wasn't. Even though he knew that it was almost all his fault, that didn't mean that he didn't think that there was something that Sonny could have done to fix the problem before it became a problem. He wasn't angry at Sonny, though. He knew that his father would have done something if he had been aware. Michael just wished that they were more aware than they had been the night before. Everything would have been different.
When they walked onto the floor where Damian was being contained, Michael was holding Carly's hand as tight as he could. He knew that he told her that if he was feeling afraid or if he wanted to go home he'd say it and Carly would find a way to get him back, but he didn't want to leave at all. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't scared. The fact that he was in the hospital, a place that he knew his Uncle Jason, one of the strongest people that he knew, hated didn't help either.
"Courtney," Mike saw his daughter and the rest of his family from the waiting area. He got up and smiled, hugging his daughter, "Hi, princess."
"Dad?" Courtney was surprised that Mike was around. Sonny and Mike being alone together often didn't end up being something that people wanted to see. "How long have you been here?"
"A few hours," Mike said. "I couldn't sleep, so I just came to the hospital, in case there was any news."
"Thank you, Mike," Carly said to her father-in-law. "It's nice to know that someone was here in case something happened and Sonny couldn't make a phone call."
"Yeah, no problem."
"Grandpa..." Michael came out from behind Carly.
Mike didn't expect Michael to be anywhere near the hospital for a very long time. The fact that Michael was around made things harder for Mike. Seeing his crimson haired grandson, who he knew was more than well aware of what was going on, made Mike nearly break down. But he stayed strong, more for Michael than for himself. "Hey, kiddo. Come here." As Michael walked over, Mike got down on his knees and hugged Michael. "You afraid?"
"A little bit, yeah," Michael admitted. "Aren't you?"
Mike nodded, "I'm afraid, too. But that doesn't mean that something bad is going to happen, you know? Sometimes, when the people that we love are in danger or hurt, we worry anyways, because we love them so much that we just automatically think that something really bad is going to happen to them. We can't think that right now, though. We have to stay positive. Can you do that for me?"
"I can try..."
"That's better than nothing," Mike got up, rubbing Michael's hair with his hand gently. "Sonny will be glad to know that you've come."
"Where is he?" Carly asked, looking around and not seeing Sonny anywhere.
"We've been waiting for awhile since they took Damian in for some tests. You know Sonny, if he's waiting for more than five minutes for information then he's been waiting too long. I managed to get him to wait a little bit longer, but in the end he acted like we knew he would and decided that if no one was going to tell him something he was going to find someone and make them tell him."
Carly shook her head, "He couldn't be patient..."
"Could you?" Mike asked. "If things were different... wouldn't you be looking for answers right away?"
Carly looked down at her child and thought about it. If Michael was in the position that Damian was in, if it were Michael that was being looked at and probed, she wouldn't be able to stay calm. She'd like to think that she would have been able to do it, but she knew that in the end her motherly instincts would just take over and she wouldn't be able to control herself. "How long has he been gone?"
"Not even 10 minutes," Mike noticed how Carly didn't actually answer the question, but he knew that she had thought of an answer in her head. The answer was apparent, she would be acting the same way. What saddened Mike was that, when he was their age, when Sonny and Courtney were the age that Michael was, or even Damian, if something like that had happened, Mike wouldn't have been around for them. He knew there were plenty of reasons that Sonny still couldn't be close to him as a father, that they would barely be something of friends, and he was looking at one of those reasons at that very moment. Mike wondered what he was, why he allowed himself to become the type of person that he was when he was younger and he didn't have any good reasons or excuses, he was just stupid.
"Has Maxie been here today?" Courtney asked. She couldn't forget that Maxie was still the one that Damian loved, and that Maxie was the one who took everything harder than the rest, even harder than Michael. She didn't know about the argument that they had a few hours before the accident, though.
"I haven't seen her," Mike recalled taking the girls home the night before. "When I dropped her and Georgie off at their house I could still tell that she was in shock. I hope that she's managed to get over it, and hopefully come to terms with what happened. She'll be here later today, I'm almost certain of it."
Elsewhere in the hospital-
How many ignorant fools did the hospital have on their payroll? That was the question that was constantly running through Sonny's mind. He had asked over a dozen various doctors and nurses, even candy-strippers for some information, any information. He wasn't getting anything, and it was starting to make him mad. To be more precise, he was already mad, he was starting to get irate.
When one of the staffers walked past him, Sonny grabbed her by the wrist. She jumped a little. Sonny calmed himself down a little, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm looking for some information on my son. Damian Cor..." Sonny stopped himself. Even though Damian was calling Sonny 'dad,' he still hadn't taken the rightful last name that belonged to him. "Zuniga. Damian Zuniga."
The nurse stayed silent for a moment, "He's the one that was in the hit and run last night, wasn't he?"
"Yes," Sonny replied. "The doctors have taken him into an examination room, but they've had him in there for such a long time that I just want to know how much longer I'm going to have to wait."
"I'm sorry, but that isn't my area of the hospital to take care of," She tried to sound both polite and sympathetic at the same time. She knew who Sonny Corinthos was, she didn't want him angry at her. "Maybe you should check the nurses' station. They have all the files for everyone on the floor and the hospital."
"I was just there!" Sonny declared. "They haven't told me anything that I didn't already know!"
She backed away slightly, "I'm sorry about what happened to your son, sir, but there isn't anything that I can do to help you. I'm sure that if you just wait in the waiting area someone will contact you with the information when it becomes available." Without giving Sonny a chance to even make a response, or shoot her, the woman scampered off.
Sonny punched the wall, "What the hell do I have to do in order to get some answers?"
"There you are..."
Sonny turned around, "Courtney?"
His little sister had been looking around the hospital for him, knowing full well that an angry Sonny was a considerably more dangerous Sonny. "Come on, Sonny, there's nothing that we can do other than wait."
"I hate waiting," Sonny replied. "I want the answers that I need and I want them right now."
"Angering the staff is only going to make them keep more secrets from you, Sonny." Courtney was trying to be rational, knowing that it wasn't going to go over well with Sonny. There was, after all, no chance that Sonny would actually be reasonable about the situation. Sonny was capable of many things, being rational wasn't one of them. "Just come back with me, please."
"They took him away..."
"To help him."
"But they're not telling me anything."
"They'll tell you, they'll tell us all, when they have some answers."
Waiting Area-
Somehow, Courtney had managed to appeal to Sonny's senses. It was a huge victory, although it wasn't the type that she would brag about. They walked towards the waiting area together, where the rest of the family was waiting.
Michael saw his father and got out of the chair, "Daddy!"
As Michael was heading towards him, Sonny muttered to his sister, "What's Michael doing here?"
Courtney tried to sound as silent as possible, "Michael already knows what's going on, Sonny. Keeping him away from the problem isn't going to make him any less aware of the severity."
"Still... he shouldn't be here."
"Do you want to be the one to tell him that he can't be here?" Courtney asked.
Sonny knew that he didn't want to be that person. "Hey, buddy."
"Did you find anything out yet?" Michael asked.
"No, not yet," Sonny said. "I'm sorry, Michael, I've failed you."
Michael shook his head, "You didn't fail me, daddy. You're trying your hardest to help Damian now. You couldn't have known what was going on. It's not your fault." Michael was lying to himself and lying to his father, but he didn't want to hurt Sonny's feelings. Lying was okay when it didn't hurt anyone, right? Damian said that it wasn't... Michael still loved his father too much to express his concerns. "He'll be okay, I know it. He'll come back to us..."
Sonny picked Michael up and gave him a big hug. He didn't know that Michael was going to cheer him up so much. Maybe it was because of his own optimism, but when he heard his son say that everything was going to be okay, he believed it for some reason. He only hoped that, for Michael's sake more than anyone else's, the boy was right.
"I'm glad that more of your family has showed up, Sonny," Monica came from one of the ends of the hospital.
"Monica..."
"We've finished the tests," Monica's single sentence held so much weight on everyone. They all tried to read her face, but she was keeping it blank. Was it good, or bad?