Ana- Thank you for reviewing. I always feel quite bad when people discover the story some huge amount of chapters after it started. God help you if you had to read the first part, too. But nonetheless… thank you for the compliments on how I use the characters, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't feel that I could convey the characters in a believable manner. Dillon and Tracy are two of my favorites, if not my favorites. Faith is certainly up there. However… there is no plan for a miracle baby to grace the arms of Journey in this story. Dillon's more than a handful, the hair gel budget alone puts a dent in their expenditures. If you want to get technical, Carly in 'Woe' is very much more accepting of Damian than Carly was in 'Shadows.' Their relationship is complex, and a lot of fun to engage as a writer. But… Sonny probably won't find out. I don't want him to find out. If I end up wanting him to find out you can be sure it will come at a very dramatic moment, but don't be banking on that secret coming out right away. Think of it like the Kristina paternity test. I know that the characterization that would come with the revelation would be lots of fun, but right now my plate is pretty full. Look for Brook to cause more drama than Lois, but Lois is loads of fun.

Corinthos Household-

It had been a long tedious visit, at least for Carly, but there was finally the time when Lois and her daughter left. She had nothing against Brook Lynn. In fact, the girl seemed to be quiet and non-intrusive, two things that worked in the teenager's favor, especially given who she was birthed out of. But Lois… Lois was another story entirely. Some would say that it was simply because Lois was quite possibly the only person who knew her husband better than she did, and Carly wouldn't lie, she was jealous of Lois and Sonny's relationship, even though it had never gone beyond being nothing but a deep and binding friendship. Or maybe it was because Lois and Carly were just so alike that they couldn't be in the same room without annoying the other. Whatever the reason or reasons were, Carly did not like Lois.

She was even less thrilled about Lois and her impromptu visit when she realized that Lois had, at least on some level, hurt her son. Carly didn't exactly blame Lois, she couldn't have known how precious time with Damian was to Michael, having just met them both, but she should have been more aware of the boys feelings. Perhaps because Lois only had a daughter she didn't notice those things, but Carly did.

The blame could not be placed entirely on Lois. No, the Corinthos men were welcome to a part of the blame as well, and Carly wasn't going to let them remain ignorant to that fact for very long.

"I hope you're both happy," she said blankly as she walked into the back of the house, where they had still been.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Damian didn't know what Carly was talking about. Why was she being so hostile?

"I just saw one of my best friends, why wouldn't I be happy?" Sonny asked, also unaware of his wife and her temper. Instead, he focused on the boy, "So, what'd you think of Lois?"

"After I spent a few seconds adjusting to her accent…"

"I used to talk like that…"

"Well, we'll be thankful that you stopped talking like that by the time I met you," Damian couldn't see Sonny with such a thick accent. It was a very alarming vision in his mind. "You're hard enough to understand on the mental level, dad, I'd hate to see what it would have been like if you would have spoken with that accent, I think I probably would have run away when I first met you."

"You did run away when you first met me…"

He wouldn't forget their first encounter. On the docks, after he had just gotten done speaking to Faith. Even thinking about that woman sent a chill down Damian's spine. She had almost killed everyone that he had cared for, both in Port Charles and Los Angeles. "Can you blame me?"

Carly couldn't believe how nonchalant they were both being. Sonny's son and Damian's little brother was genuinely hurt and they were too blind to see it? It was past time that someone opened their eyes, and Carly was the only person who wanted to take that job. "All right, enough!"

Both men were taken off guard by Carly's outburst. Not that she didn't have outbursts frequently, but the one she was having at that moment was unexpected.

"What's the matter, Carly?" Sonny asked. "Did you not get everything you wanted from Santa Clause?"

"Don't even try to humor me right now, Sonny Corinthos, because it isn't going to work!" Carly tried to keep her voice down, she knew that Michael could hear her if she was yelling, the same with Morgan. She didn't want to hurt Michael further, nor did she want to wake her baby up. "You should both be disgusted with yourselves. I trust you both with my son… and yet I'm the only one who can see how hurt he is right now. Do neither of you care that Michael felt like he was being pushed aside while you two were busy trying to impress Lois and Brook Lynn? The way you were both looking at her it was like she was the only person that mattered in the world, but I've got news for you, she doesn't matter. Nobody matters more than your family, and Michael is a part of that family by your own respective choices…"

"What are you talking about?" Sonny didn't appreciate the rant. Carly telling him that he didn't love Michael was something that he never wanted to hear. Who was she to even attempt to judge him and how he felt about a boy that Sonny knew in his heart was his son?

"That's exactly what I'm talking about…" Carly scoffed.

"Carly," Damian was less infuriated with his step-mother than his father, but he still didn't like the accusations. Rather than be angry, though, he tried to think back to find out what he did that was wrong so that he would fix it. "You need to be a little more specific here…"

"No, I don't," Carly shook her head. "You're both the ones who need to take a good look at yourself…"

"Carly, please," Damian cut her off before she started spouting off more nonsense. "You want us to reevaluate ourselves, but we don't know what we did that was wrong. Just give us something…"

"Don't bother," Sonny told Damian, "when she gets like this she's not going to give us any sort of information."

"You don't deserve it," Carly was still seething with anger and pain in her heart. "You made my son feel like he was nothing to both of you. I'll admit that there are times when I can't drop everything and be there for Michael and I hate it when that happens, but I at least own up to my faults, I don't just go on with life like nothing wrong happened. That's why I'm so angry with both of you right now… I know you love Michael, but I want you to act like it."

Sonny had to hold his own anger in before he let it get the better of him. He didn't know that he would have been able to if it weren't for the fact that one of his children was sitting mere feet away from him. Yes, Damian was an adult, he could handle it, but Sonny still didn't like being so erratic around any of his kids, regardless of age.

Carly left very much in the same way that she had come in. Sonny shook his head and braced himself against the piano. "Who does she think she is? Thinking that I don't care about my son? I love that boy so much…"

"Dad…"

"My friend was here, someone that I haven't seen for a few years. She came here with her daughter. What was I supposed to do? I've only got so much attention that I can give… I can't talk to my friend for a few minutes without hurting one of my children?"

"It was my fault," Damian stood up.

Sonny blinked. He didn't think that either of them were truly at fault. He had a feeling that his son was just trying to put the blame on someone, and since he was such a kindhearted person he would gladly place it on him, even when he didn't deserve it. "What are you talking about? It wasn't your fault."

Damian wasn't going to let his father just alleviate his guilt like that. "Dad… I think I know why Michael was hurt. I told him that we could keep on playing the piano together, and almost right after I said that you came in with Lois and Brook and then Lois started going on about how she wanted to hear me play something…"

"Lois is in the music industry. She wanted to see how much talent you had. Can you blame her?"

"No, I can't," Damian didn't think that it was Lois who was to blame, although if she hadn't have come over then it wouldn't have happened, but the way that Damian reacted was his fault and his alone. "But it just happened so fast that I didn't really stop to think about how Michael would take the change in plans."

"Michael needs to understand that the world doesn't revolve around him…"

"Michael also at least deserves an explanation as to when things happen that he didn't intend. We didn't even talk about it. I didn't ask if it was okay. I can see how that would rub against him the wrong way."

"He's a little boy… he gets hurt easily."

"Which is why we should have to work extra hard making sure that he doesn't get hurt," sometimes, although he would never admit it, Damian felt that he was doing a hefty amount of parenting in the stead of his father. It was certainly true with their own relationship, where Damian had to guide Sonny into the role of being a father to a twenty one year old young man, but there were a few times when he was able to help Sonny understand Michael a little better.

"I see your point," Sonny regretted the mistakes that they had both made with Michael. It was Christmas, too. "We should go apologize to him."

"Let me do it," Damian offered his services. "You can talk to Carly… try and calm her down."

"I'd rather talk to Michael…"

"Yeah, well, I'm not married to Carly," Damian started to walk away. "She wears your ring, dad, that's your jurisdiction."

Sonny waited a moment, then it dawned on him. "I just got played, didn't I?"

Upstairs, Michael was playing with his new toys, but he wasn't happy. He was just looking for a distraction. He hated being treated like he was a little kid, it was easily his least favorite thing. He could tolerate the kissing much more than he could tolerate being treated like he didn't matter to his family. He had at least stopped crying, which was the first thing that he had done when his mother left him. At least she still cared.

"Michael…"

"Go away," Michael muttered, not even bothering to look at his brother.

"Hey, you know better than to say something like that to anyone…" Damian wasn't going to let his little brother boss him around. Michael had been mistreated, yes, but that didn't give him the right to mistreat someone else back. "Come on… how am I going to make everything better unless you talk to me?"

"Maybe I don't want to talk with you."

"You don't really mean that, do you? Who else are you going to talk with?"

"I can talk to other people…"

"But I thought you liked talking to me."

"I did. But I'm mad at you."

"I'm mad at myself, too," Damian sat on the carpet, his back braced on the bed where Michael's feet dangled off the side. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier when Lois was here. I didn't mean to just blow you off like that."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because sometimes even I can make mistakes, Michael," Damian hoped he was getting somewhere with the kid, because he knew how stubborn Michael could be and Damian wasn't sure how far he could go before he lost the argument completely. "If you don't want to accept my apology, then that's your choice. You have the right to your opinion, and all I can do is say that I didn't mean to do it and if I could have I would have done everything differently. I care about you too much to see you angry or hurt, kid, and I won't let you keep on doing that to yourself, but I can't stop you."

"You always do this to me…"

"Do what?"

"Try and treat me like I'm not a little kid…"

"Because you're not, you're growing up…"

"Yeah, but then you go and do something that makes me feel like I am a little kid," Michael finally did look at his brother, but he wasn't crying, he was just hurt. "I hate it when you do that. You try and tell me something, and then you do something else that makes me wonder how much you really believe in me."

"I believe in you completely. There's nobody else that I would want for a little brother, Michael, nobody. Sometimes I forget how mature you are, how you can see things that I would have never been able to see when I was your age. You're a smart kid, and I need to remember that."

Michael could see that Damian was getting up to leave. "Where are you going?"

"To give you some time alone so you can make up your mind. Dad and I both feel really bad about what we did, but it's like I've told you many times in the past, you're free to make your own choices." He walked out of the room, pressing his head against the door when he closed it. Who knew being a big brother could be so complicated?