Joy- Banter is something that I enjoy doing. It's amusing and it cuts down on the drama that seems to swallow the lives of the residents of Port Charles whole. Yes, I don't think we've ever had a Carly and Dillon moment either, or a Dillon and Sonny moment. We do, however, get the golden moments of Dillon and Jason every so often, and my heart mends itself whenever those two are on screen at the same time. It's a pity, too, since at the moment the show is more comedy than drama and Carly and Dillon are two of the funniest people on the show. Minus the Rexis, of course.

Sonny's Super Sperm has been an enigma to many of us, Joy. We don't understand how he does it, but he does. It's like he merely must kiss a woman to get her knocked up. Fascinating thing.

Corinthos Household-

Carly was looking frantically around the home. While it was able to hold her dreams and more it didn't make for optimal hiding space after one of her many yearly shopping sprees. She swore to herself that it would be the last one that she had before the end of the year, which was only a week and a half away. She had a feeling that she would be breaking that vow. After Christmas sales were a harsh, cruel mistress. She'd just have to find something that would occupy her time before she got her mind set on spending more of Sonny's hard earned money. Besides, there were still bags over at Courtney's, so it didn't look like she was doing too badly.

Sonny came down from their bedroom. He had checked on Michael, who was now happily content playing with his Game Boy. Sonny would never understand the appeal of the video games to the children. They were loud, they were obnoxious, and, try as hard as he could, Sonny could never get past the third world of Super Mario Brothers. When Sonny couldn't do something, Sonny instantly became embittered with that which he couldn't do. Nintendo needed to do something about making games that people who were over 20 could pick up and have some fun. Michael could do it with his eyes closed, but the kid obviously had skills that Sonny didn't know how to properly harness.

"Do I need to keep my eyes averted from the things inside the bag?" Sonny asked, a wry grin appearing on his face as he descended down the final steps. "There's nothing in there for me, is there?"

"Well, that just depends on what you think is yours, Sonny," Carly stated coyly. "I can tell you for certain that there is nothing in any of these bags that would fit you… well, that would fit you and that you would wear, unless you have a fetish for wearing my nightgowns while I'm away."

"Well, there was this one time…"

"Sonny!" Carly's jaw dropped in shock. Was he being serious? He had wore her gowns?

"I'm joking, Carly, don't worry about it. Lace isn't my thing." Sonny walked over and gave her a short, but passionate kiss. Passionate kisses for his wife were the only kisses that he could give Carly. The only kisses that she would accept. She had a high standard for kisses.

"You don't mind touching it when it's on me…"

"I don't mind touching anything that's on you… and I certainly don't mind touching you when there's nothing at all on you."

"Maybe Santa will bring you a nice Christmas present sometime soon, then. You might even get something early."

"Santa doesn't give early Christmas presents, Carly. It's a rule."

"Well, maybe Santa can break the rule, just this once," Carly nuzzled her head on Sonny's chest, basking in the feel that she got when she was around her husband. He made her world complete, and she hated the idea that she was keeping one thing from him that would shatter that. She couldn't ever let it get out to anyone. Nobody knew. The only man who did know was dead, and he wasn't going to talk anymore. Even if he could talk, Lorenzo would have never stated what Carly's plans were. He would have never betrayed her. He was loyal, scarily loyal, to the point of obsession. She was glad that he was gone. Glad that the only one who knew about her prior plots was her alone.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind breaking a single rule… but only this once," Sonny gently stroked her hair. He liked running his hand through her hair.

"On second thought," Carly pushed away from Sonny, Cheshire grin apparent on her face, "I really want that one special present that only Santa can give me, and if I break a rule I might not get it from him. Not going to take the chance, Mr. Corinthos."

"You know that he'll get you whatever you want. Santa's nothing if not a just and kind man…"

"Nope," Carly shook her head. "You're not sweet talking your way out of this, and don't even try that dimple thing. I've devised a defense system against it. It's foolproof."

"And what would that be?" Sonny asked, smiling so that his dimples did indeed show. They were the downfall of many before Carly.

"Just not looking at them," Carly turned around, but found herself looking in the mirror, "Dammit, I can't get away from them!"

"Admit it," Sonny walked up behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder, "you can't beat them, no matter how hard you try." Sonny looked at he and his wife in the mirror, connected in so many ways, both physical and spiritual. He ran his band-wearing hand and laced it with the hand that she wore her own wedding ring on.

"I'd hate to admit to something that isn't true, Sonny," Carly turned her head away. "Don't want to let your ego get even bigger." She saw something that caught her eye. It wasn't something that she would have noticed if she didn't look in that general direction at that moment. She walked away from Sonny, investigating even more. The compartment where he held his gun was slightly opened.

"So, what is in all these bags, then? Presents for the kids? Morgan's easy to shop for, but Michael hasn't even given us his list yet…"

"Sonny…"

"Yeah?"

Carly didn't want to touch the gun. She didn't like the way that she acted when she had them in her hands. She'd shot someone in open court, that was a good sign that she didn't need to be touching any guns anytime soon. "Why is this open?"

Sonny looked to see what Carly was talking about. He saw the handle of the gun and he silently cursed himself. He shouldn't have been so careless. Not with children around. Michael knew that if he saw a gun he wasn't supposed to touch it, but that didn't mean that the lesson would always win out in the end. Childlike curiosity often won out against even the most well-preached lessons. "I didn't mean to leave it open like that, I thought I closed it."

"Well, you didn't," Carly's tone showed that she was angry at her husband. She had every right to be. Children were shot because of people being careless. It was the last thing that she ever expected Sonny to be. Sonny knew better. "What if Michael saw it, Sonny?"

"Michael hasn't been down here… I know that doesn't make it okay, but he doesn't know."

"Why was it out in the first place?" Carly was so engrossed in the mistake of her husband that she didn't even hear Courtney open the door.

Sonny, likewise distracted, didn't hear her either. "I put it away after I gave the gun to Damian."

"Why would you do something like that?" Courtney spoke up, because now she was also miffed at her big brother. Handing a gun to Damian was not something that she felt anyone should have been doing. Especially after the way that he handled himself the last time a gun fell into his possession. "Sonny… I can't believe you would do something so irresponsible."

"It was a test, Courtney," Sonny responded, being completely honest. It was a test, after all, a test that he passed.

"A test of what? How soon he could start working for you out in the field?" Courtney would never back down against Sonny. She was one of the only people who never did. If Sonny pushed her, she would push back. She was a strong, opinionated woman, and nobody, not even Sonny Corinthos, was going to take that away from her.

Sonny hid the hurt that he felt from the scathing words of his sister. Did she think so lowly of him? Did she think that he wanted any of his children, regardless of their age, to be like him? Shouldn't she have known him better than that? "It was a test to prove to him that he wasn't turning into me."

"Why would he think something like that?" Carly could never see Damian being the type of person that Sonny was. He could never be that confident in himself. It was sad that he wouldn't, but she saw something in him that showed her that he wouldn't be the type of man that Sonny was.

"Because of what happened with Alcazar," Sonny closed the compartment that the gun was in, hearing it shut and latch. "There, now nobody is going to see it and none will be the wiser. He was afraid of becoming too adjusted to the fact that he killed a man, even though he did it because it was in defense of himself and of those that he cared about. He thinks that if he doesn't feel some amount of grief over what happened on that night that he's somehow less of a human."

"That just doesn't make any sense," Courtney regretted the intensity of her words to Sonny, he was just trying to make his son feel better. While he certainly could have picked a much better way of doing it, that didn't change the fact that it was all because of Sonny's love of Damian. "We've all told him that he did what he needed to do."

"And he knows that, but he doesn't think that it excuses the fact that someone died because of his actions," Sonny sat down on the chair. "I don't see how he's going to keep himself from feeling like this when he becomes a doctor. I know this is a harsh thing to say, but he's never going to be able to save everyone from dying. Nobody is that good. How's he going to feel when that happens?"

"Can we get off the topic, please?" Carly begged. Damian still wasn't her favorite person on the face of the earth, but she did feel for him, and she was slowly adjusting to him being in their life. She was even thinking about what she was going to get him for Christmas, that had to say something about the level of comfort that she had around the boy, didn't it?

"Sonny… look, I'm sorry. It's just that I care about him so much and I don't want to see him suffering."

"And I do?" Sonny turned his intense glare on his little sister.

"No, of course you don't, which is why I'm apologizing. I know you were acting in his best interests."

"He passed, if that matters to either of you," Sonny figured that they had both asked themselves how he did, but maybe they didn't. "I held the gun out to him, told him that all he needed to do was touch it, hold it firmly, knowing what it could do, knowing what it would probably do again. I've never seen him shake so much… not since that night. But I told him that because of the fact that he couldn't handle the gun that he wasn't turning into someone who could take it and use it like me, or like Jason."

"Are you sure he took it like that?" Courtney was still working her best to be Damian's support system. Out of all the adults that he had in his life, she was the one who he could likely cling to the most, since they both had a similar way of looking at things.

"I told him the truth, how he took it is something that I can't ever know. I'm not a mind-reader… and I still don't know the boy as well as I would like to admit. Hopefully he'll start coming to me more and more, especially now. I know I can help him, I can guide him. I want to help him."

"We all do," Carly sat next to her husband, feeling his anguish tear at him and tear at her as well. "It should get better. I mean, how many people can be miserable around Christmas?"

"I know plenty of people," Sonny quipped. "My brother, for one. But I'm sure he'll do fine. Christmas is a time to be around family, and he's always depended on his family to help him when he needed it. He might not have the Zuniga's, but he has us. This is his first time away from them… that might make it harder, which makes our job even harder, too."

"We'll do our best to make sure that he has the best holiday that he can have," Carly, miraculously, was the first to jump on the bandwagon, which made Sonny and Courtney both wonder if they weren't seeing their first Christmas miracle of the season.

"Why'd you come anyway, Courtney?" Sonny changed the subject, because it was depressing and not very festive.

"I wanted to have Carly give me a hand getting the rest of her things from my place, they're crowding the walkway. I don't want to have to feel like I'm playing twister just to get into my living room."

Sonny shook his head in disgust and amusement. "You're telling me that there are… more… bags?"

"Many," Courtney informed her dear brother.

Carly got off the couch and walked past Courtney, elbowing her in the gut softly, "Traitor!"

"Carly," Sonny began, "if there was a way to max out a limitless credit card, I'm sure that you would find some way to do it. Do you need some help?"

"No, that's fine, we can hire Dillon to do some cheap labor," Carly really just didn't want Sonny to see how many bags were around. He wouldn't be amused.