AN: For all your Journey fans–here's a bit of Journey for you! Yay! AND… my Journey fic is up now, so check it out! It's called "From This Day Forth."

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Golden Child

Chapter Four

"So, where are we headed to?" I asked, as nonchalantly as I could. I wanted to keep the conversation—and the whole mood—as casual and as light as possible, hoping I could make my way through this without becoming nervous or anything.

"They wanted to eat at Kelly's, except for Mom—she wanted to have lunch at the Cellar and when she gets an idea, no one can sway her." Bella rolled her eyes. "So uncle Jason and aunt Courtney are gonna pick us up, they should be meeting us right about…" We turned a corner and found a car waiting. "Here."

Courtney stepped out of the car and Justine ran to her. "Mommy! Mommy!"

"Hi, angel." Courtney smiled and picked up her younger daughter, then greeted her other daughter and her niece. "Hey, guys. You ready?"

"Yeah. Auntie, we brought my friend Kristina along, is that okay?"

The blonde woman, the spitting image of her little girl, looked up at me, started for a second and looked quickly at Bella, then looked back at me and smiled. "Of course." Then her eyes lit up. "You're Jason's niece, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah." Which was true—still true. I laughed internally at the irony—even though everything in my life had pretty much changed, at least I had some constant. We piled in the car and Jason's eyes widened when he saw me through the rearview mirror. "Kristina?"

"Hi, Uncle Jason."

"How are you? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah, you should come to visit me more often," I told him, but smiling. "Bella said that it was okay for me to come with you guys to lunch."

"Good job, Tink*," Jason said as he began driving, winking and grinning at Bella in the mirror. "Saved me a visit."

"Jason!" Courtney gasped, hitting her husband on the shoulder playfully. "That's your family."

"You guys are my family. Just because I'm related to people doesn't mean I consider them family—like A.J. He's a prick!"

Before I could stop myself, I burst out laughing. "Too true."

"See, Kristina agrees with me—she should know, she has to live with him!" He shot me a sympathetic look. "I feel your pain."

"Don't worry about it," I told my uncle. "I won't have to put up with them for much longer, I'm sure," I said dryly, then widened my eyes when I realized what I had said.

"Why wouldn't you?" Courtney asked quizzically.

"I… um… well, it's about time that A.J. moved out of the mansion, don't you think? I mean, he is a little old to be living there." I couldn't resist taking a shot at my "uncle." Jason was more of an uncle than A.J. ever would be, and I needed something to cover the truth.

Jason and Courtney laughed heartily. "You don't know how right you are about that, Kristina. But if Edward wants him in there, then so be it."

I nodded, knowing exactly how it went. "So, Kristina, how are you? I haven't talked to you in a long time. Pretty soon I won't even know who you are."

Considering that now I didn't even know who I was, he didn't know how close he was to the truth. I broke out of my thoughts at the expectant look Jason was giving me, and looking into those eyes, those truthful eyes, I knew that I could trust him with my secret. I needed to tell someone other than my parents–this was eating me up. "I'm okay."

"How's the family?"

I laughed. "As I told Bella and Hope... constant drama." I shot him a meaningful look in the mirror, signaling with my eyes that I needed to talk to him, and with the slightest nod of his head, he told me that he agreed. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"What else is new." Jason winked at me before answering his cell phone, which was now ringing. "Morgan." I could hear Courtney and Hope sigh—Jason was involved in "unscrupulous" business, as my uncle A.J. called it.

"Yeah… yeah… okay, we'll be there." Jason grinned. "Good news, Bella—change of plans. We're eating at Kelly's today."

"Yay!" I laughed. Bella was so funny when she wanted to be. Jason made a quick change of direction, coming back the way we came, and soon we were at Kelly's. We got out of the car and headed inside, my hands involuntarily trembling. "Come on," Bella chided, "my dad's not that bad."

Yeah, that's what you think, I thought. But I just smiled and walked in with the rest of them, and Bella's mom was waiting there for us. "Hey guys. Sonny's gonna be here in a few—he's got something to take care of first."

"Okay," Jason agreed, as we sat at two adjoining tables—one for the kids, one for the adults. Before I sat down, Bella said, "Wait. Mom—mom, this is my friend Kristina. Kristina, this is my mom, Carly Corinthos."

"Hi," I said, as Carly shook my hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Kristina…" She looked at me questioningly, and I said, "Just Kristina. It's a long story, but I don't prefer a last name."

"Oh. Okay." Carly nodded slowly but incredulously, as if she didn't believe me. Then she looked at me closely. "Wow… hey, Bella, come here."

"Yeah?"

"Stand next to her for me, will you?"

"Umm… okay." Bella obliged and stood next to me. She looked at the two of us carefully and then said, "Do you guys see it?," referring to Jason and Courtney.

Jason nodded, while Courtney gasped and said, "Oh, my gosh, you guys look uncannily alike."

"Like twins?" Bella asked.

"No… you have your differences, but… wow."

Carly looked at me and asked, "Kristina, who are your parents?"

I hesitated, then said, "Um… well, I grew up with Ned and Skye Ashton."

"Oh." Then Carly's eyes lit in recognition. "Oh, my goodness." Her hand flew to her mouth. "But Skye's not your mother, right?"

"What? Skye's not your mom?" Bella echoed incredulously.

"I… um…" I couldn't think straight. How did Carly know all of this? "Uh… no, she's my stepmom. She's not my biological mother."

Carly just nodded, while Bella almost screamed, "What? How come you didn't tell me?"

"Like I said, it's a long story, and I just found out, but I promise I'll tell you later, okay?" I whispered in her ear. She just nodded and her face took on a more serious expression when I told her that. Her mother, on the other hand, kept interrogating me. "So if Skye's not your mother… who is?"

Bella, seeing that I was becoming visibly upset, then stepped in and said, "Mom, lay off. You just met her, can't you see your upsetting her?"

"I…" She trailed off, appeared pensive for a moment, and then said, "You know what, you're right. Kristina, I'm really sorry, I just… your story… it brings back something from the past that I thought I had put past me."

I nodded. I had a feeling she knew everything—how, I don't know—and if she did know the truth, she would feel threatened. "It's okay."

"I'm really, truly sorry… I can see how shaken and upset you are by this."

I waved her off, smiling. "It's okay. Really. I'd just rather not talk about it and dwell on other things instead, like… how it's good to finally meet you. Bella talks about you all the time."

"Wait, how do you know her?"

"She's been in a few of my classes at school—we were the only two people from Port Charles there, and so we bonded, you know," I explained. Carly smiled. "Well, I'm glad Bella's had someone to talk and relate to."

I smiled. "Yeah, it's been fun."

"Hey, Mom," Bella asked, interrupting, "can I sit down now?"

"What? Of course you can." Carly smiled at her daughter, and as we proceeded to sit down, a voice sounded, "Hey, I made it," and I froze. I turned around and came face to face with my past, and possibly my future—Sonny Corinthos was walking towards the table, and toward me.

Hey, so that's the end of chapter three! I have a poll for you guys, now you can help me write this story =D—just exactly how do you want Sonny to find out that Kristina's his daughter? A few options for you:

-Carly tells him.

-Kristina tells Jason and Jason tells Sonny

-While Kristina confides in Bella, someone overhears and tells him. The choices for that someone are Justine and *gasp—plot twist!* Loren. [I'm leaning towards that one… hehe]

-Kristina tells him herself

-He never finds out

-Other suggestions welcome

Let me know—the option with the most votes will become the story! Remember that whatever choice is chosen will impact the rest of the story, so… yeah. =D Please let me know. In other words—review!!!

*The whole thing with Tink… it's like Tinkerbell… you know, Belle, Bella… Tink… yeah. =D