As he heard the door to his room open the next morning, Leo sleepily opened an eye. It was all that he could bare to open as his over-consumption of alcohol the previous night had given him one hell of a hangover. He felt as if someone was trying to saw his head into two pieces. After moving the empty wine bottle from the wooden chair to the floor, Guy sat down and stared sympathetically at his son, who was beginning to realize just how much pain he was in.

"I understand that you and Carlos had quite a celebration yesterday." Guy said quietly.

"Please don't yell, Guy." Leo begged with a groan.

"I'm not." Guy chuckled, "And that would be Dad to you, Leo."

"Hurts too much to think straight." Leo semi-apologized, massaging his forehead with one of his hands. He winced as he realized that touching his head at all was only making things worse. When he opened his eyes again, Leo noticed that his father had disappeared from sight! Hearing water running in the adjacent bathroom, he sat up in bed slowly.

"This should make you feel better." Guy said as he walked back into the room. He carried a glass of water and what appeared to be a bottle of aspirin. He handed the water off to Leo before shaking a few pills out of the bottle.

"I'm not a kid, Dad." Leo smiled as Guy handed him the pills, "I can get my own medication."

"You'd be too tempted to take the whole bottle in your state." Guy commented, causing Leo to chuckle.

"That's probably true." Leo admitted before taking the pills.

"We'll wait until you feel better to unwrap your gifts." Guy said, turning Leo's attention towards the tree.

"Yeah, about that." Leo sighed heavily. There was no easy way to do this. "I'm sorry, but I can't accept them."

"Because I wasn't able to get you anything in return." Leo explained, which triggered a quiet laugh from Guy. The Pine Valley resident felt both bewildered and angry at his father's reaction to what Leo felt was a valid concern. He turned away from Guy in a huff. "I'm glad that you think that this is funny."

"I didn't mean to offend you, my boy." Guy apologized, putting a hand on Leo's shoulder. "It's just that you did exactly what I thought that you would do."

"Thought I would do?" Leo repeated, looking at his father. "But if you knew, why did you…"

"Because your concern does not exist." Guy said with a shrug of his shoulders. "You did give me a gift."

"I did?" Leo asked with a raised eyebrow. "How? Except for going to Dr. Jacot's clinic, I've been stuck in this tower for two straight months now!"

Saying nothing, Guy smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. He offered it to Leo, who slowly took it and opened it up.

"The results of the paternity test." Leo stated, looking at the paper before looking back up at his father. "But I didn't have anything to do with this!"

"You were the one who started everything." Guy reminded.

Turning his attention to the tree in front of him, Leo thought about what his father just said. He remembered how he (and to his surprise, Greenlee) had traveled to Paris that summer with the intention of tracking down Guy, who never knew that Leo even existed. A smile crossed Leo's face as the memories of the "quality time" he had spent with Greenlee in Paris began to also play in his mind. If only he could go back in time…

"You understand now?" Guy asked, snapping Leo out of his daydreams.

"I do." Leo nodded.

"Well, that only leaves us one more thing to talk about." Guy said, changing the subject.

"What?" Leo wondered as Guy silently held up the empty wine bottle. Leo, still suffering from his headache and starting to feel a bit queasy, cringed at the mere sight of it.

"This can't help your problems, Leo." Guy reminded, making sure that he had eye contact with his son. "It can only put them out of your mind for awhile. You do know that, right?"

"I know." Leo replied with a nod.

"Good." Guy said, squeezing Leo's shoulder supportively. "What do you say to unwrapping your presents?"

To be continued....