Corinthos Household, late morning-

There was the single problem that came with opening the presents on Christmas Eve, there really wasn't anything to look forward to on Christmas Day. But, the children were happier quicker and they stopped complaining about now being able to open their presents sooner, so the sacrifice that was made in favor of tradition was a small one at best.

Sonny had been looking at the baby book for most of the night. He usually didn't get that many hours of sleep, but the time that he spent between interacting with the people in his life and trying to sleep was usually just met with him either walking around the room as quietly as possible so he didn't wake Carly up, or laying there in bed. Silent. Brooding.

Such wasn't the case after his family had gone to bed on Christmas Eve. Sonny had something that was thoroughly engrossing. A past. His son's past. A part of Damian that hadn't really been expressed and discovered by Sonny. That was going to change. He had wondered why the Zuniga's didn't comply with his request for some old pictures of his son when he had asked them during his recent visit. He knew that it was partly insensitive, but Sonny had as much right to seeing the boy that his son once was as anyone else. When Elias and Victoria denied his request he only assumed that it was because they were still hurt by the events that had led up to Damian's birth. He didn't blame them, it was something that he would never forgive himself for, either. Just another bullet in the long list of reasons that Scully, his former boss, had to die.

But now Sonny knew better. They didn't give him the pictures because they knew that it would have ruined the surprise that Damian had in store for him. There were only rare moments in time when Sonny Corinthos found himself speechless, but Damian had managed to prove he had a knack for finding a way to do just that. Sonny was speechless when Damian made the claim that they were father and son, speechless when Damian found out about the lies that Sonny had told, speechless when Damian first called him 'dad.'

Even then, hours after the gift had been received, Sonny was still going through the pages of the book, looking at each little page, every single word that was written, looking for the tiniest details. He wanted to be a good father, and he knew that he was thought of as one, both by himself and by those around him, but if he was going to be a better father for the son that he had only known for less than a year he needed to know more about Damian, and he had been given his chance.

Carly slept peacefully on Christmas Eve. She had many demons that would make her rest less than pleasant, but Damian's gift to her made at least one of those demons go away. It didn't solve the problem completely. If Sonny found out about what had happened, her part in the whole ordeal, she knew that he would leave her forever, and she didn't blame him. Damian may have forgiven Carly for her mistakes, but Damian would forgive people much easier than his father.

"Look," Sonny pointed to one of the pictures in the book, grinning, "don't you think he looks like Morgan right there?"

Carly examined the picture carefully. Before she would have hated her son being compared to Sonny's son, but now she didn't mind. She did see the resemblance, the tie that linked both of them to Sonny. "It's the nose."

"I hate being faced with all the time I missed," Sonny lamented. "Look at all of these pictures, Carly. I should have been there… each time one of these pictures was taken I should have been right there beside him, I should know when each of these was taken, the exact location, why… everything."

Carly understood Sonny's pain. He would always beat himself up much quicker than he would beat up anyone else. "Sonny, don't do this. Don't turn the gift that your son gave you completely out of love into something that you look at with any sort of scorn. Damian wouldn't want that, I don't want that and I know that, deep down, you don't want it either."

"You're right," Sonny was glad that he had his wife to anchor him, anchor his sanity. Someone that he could depend on. His ears perked up as the faint sound traveled through the house. "Guess he's giving that new piano a good workout."

"I still can't believe that you gave him that…"

"Carly, it's not like he doesn't know how to play it. You're supposed to feed a child's imagination, especially if they have some sort of musical talent. Instead it was being squandered because of what happened with his mother. He deserves a chance to play again. He told me before that it was one of the only times that he was ever happy. I just want to give him something back."

Carly listened to the tune, her eyes wincing. "Are you sure he knows how to play it?" The notes weren't very fluid, and that was putting it mildly.

If it weren't for the fact that the piano was safely concealed behind a corner, Sonny and Carly would both realize that the less than fine tuned sounds that were coming from the piano did not originate from Damian's hands. Far from it, he was merely smiling as he sat on the bench next to Michael, who was pressing down on the keys frantically.

Michael finally stopped after a few minutes. "How'd I do?"

"For a first timer… you've got a certain style that is all your own," that was the nice way of putting it. The very nice way. But Michael was untrained, it wasn't his fault that his attempts at playing the piano were met with less than pleasant results. "But we all started like that, I guess. Most of us at least."

"Did you start like me?"

"No," Damian moved Michael's hands out of the way. "I started more like this," taking his palm and putting it directly over the keys, Damian pushed down and ran back and forth.

Michael had yet to try that particular style of playing the piano, but he followed suit. There was at least some degree of tune that came after that. "This is fun! I can see myself doing this all the time."

Damian didn't mind his brother enjoying the piano. He embraced that Michael was trying something new, but he also knew that if Michael continued to do such a thing over and over someone would eventually come to the conclusion that the piano needed to go. He didn't know how long he would have with the piano in the first place, given that he would be starting school again and his free time would once more be limited, but he didn't want to lose the baby grand so quickly.

"Michael," Damian said softly, "instruments are fun to play, but they're also very delicate. You have to have some sort of training in order to use them properly and have the most fun with them."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he spent a moment looking for something that he could draw parallels to from Michael's own interests. "You know how you play ice hockey?"

"With the skates and the sticks on the ice…"

"Yeah, but if you didn't know how to skate you wouldn't be able to have as much fun playing ice hockey, would you? You'd be falling a lot and you'd probably spend more time trying to get up than you would playing the actual game. You could still have fun, but it wouldn't be as much fun, would it?"

Michael thought about it. Before he learned how to skate he had fallen more than a few times. He hated it when he fell, he hated it a lot. It wasn't fun to him until he learned how to skate. If he didn't know how to skate, then it wouldn't have been any fun at all. "Show me how to have some fun with this… the right way."

Damian nodded at the boy, "It'd be my pleasure." He took out Maxie's book of sheet music, which seemed like a much better present now that he had a piano than it did when he got it, not that he didn't like it regardless, but he could get more use out of it. She'd be happy to know that. Damian thumbed through the pages, looking for something that wouldn't bore Michael to tears. It had to be something that he could identify with. Finally coming across something that might have worked, he put the book in its place. "Did you like Aladdin?"

"I loved Aladdin! The Genie was so funny!"

"This is how A Whole New World would sound on the piano."

Michael's face scrunched up, "I didn't like that part, it was way too mushy."

"Work with me here, kid," Damian requested. Michael would eventually see that mushy wasn't bad, it could be quiet good. "I'll need you to turn the page for me when I tell you, okay?"

Back in the living room, Carly's fears were quelled as she heard a familiar tune coming from the other area of the house. It didn't sound that bad. She heard a knock on the door. "Who could that be?"

"I don't know," Sonny got up, putting the book on the table. "I didn't ask anyone to come over, did you?"

Carly shook her head, "Maybe it's my mom, though. I don't know why she wouldn't call…"

Sonny opened the door, his body covering Carly's view, but she knew who it was the second she heard that strong, obnoxious Brooklyn accent squealing and she saw those tacky nails wrapped around her husband.

"There's the best childhood friend a girl could have ever asked for!" Lois kissed Sonny on the cheek. "I missed you so much!"

Sonny returned the gesture. Lois was one of his best friends. "Lois… I didn't know that you were in town."

"I sort of just came through… unannounced."

"You have a knack for that, don't you, Lois?" Carly shot at the woman. Lois was never her favorite person, in fact, they barely got along for Sonny's sake. Carly always had the urge to just slice Lois up with those damned nails of hers.

"I'm sure that another spar between the two of us can wait until after Christmas, Carly," Lois winked. "Now's a time to be with family and friends. I already saw my family, and now I'm here to see my dear friend."

"Please, come on in," Sonny held the door open. He didn't want his wife and his friend to get into a catfight, but there was always that option.

"Hold on, there's someone I want you to see," Lois turned around. "Brookie, come on!"

Brook sighed and walked up. She had no intention of seeing her mother's friend. Yes, Sonny may have been around her a time or two when she was a baby, but she was hardly a little girl anymore. She didn't even know why she allowed herself to be dragged to the Penthouse. She wanted to spend time with her dad, that was the whole reason why she agreed to come along in the first place.

Lois stood behind Brook, who was looking at the ground. "Sonny… look at how much my little Brook Lynn has grown!"

"Ma!" Brook glared behind her shoulder, "You're embarrassing me."

"She's beautiful, Lois," Sonny could see the resemblance. "But then we both knew that she would grow up to be a beautiful young woman, didn't we?"

"Can I still take you up on that offer you made to keep her safe from the bad boys that we used to see running around the streets at night?" Lois asked coyly. "Brookie here knows how much I hate those bad boys… which is why she flirts with them the most."

"You used to do the same…" Sonny countered. "Maybe it's just something that she got from you."

"Now don't you go and drudge up that part of my past, Sonny Corinthos!" Lois pushed her daughter into the house rather forcefully. "Brook, this is Sonny's wife, Carly."

"You didn't tell her about me?" Carly smiled, but it wasn't a genuine smile. "I'm surprised."

"Actually, I did tell her about you, quite a bit… but only when I wanted to give her an example of what kind of person she didn't want to end up as. You're like her version of the boogeyman, Carly."

Brook wasn't interested in her mother's latest petty squabbling match. She had something else on her mind. The sound of music that was filling the air. She looked to Sonny, "Where's that music coming from?"