Bo Buchanan closed the folder in his hands and set it down gratefully. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, then smiled to himself when he opened them and they fell on the picture of Matthew and his mother that sat on his desk. It's not that he'd planned on keeping a picture of his ex-wife on his desk, it just happened that Matthew had brought it to him, all framed and everything and had even found just the right spot on his desk
Subtlety had never been his kid's strong suit. He had liked his last woman-friend a lot. But as Matthew had explained, "she just wasn't Mom." And in the end, in so many words, that's what Paige had said too. There was a bond between them that went further than having Matthew together, she'd told him. She couldn't compete and she was tied of trying. And then she was gone.
He picked up the picture and held it in one hand. Without thinking, his other hand came up and caressed the smiling faces in the photograph. Nora always had a great smile, he thought as he looked at her. Too bad they were both out of town. He missed them. Bo caught his thoughts and shook himself. He missed Matthew, that's what it was. He was glad that he and Nora were friends. But that was all they were.
He welcomed the knock on the door and called out for whoever it was to come in. He needed to get his mind off of his wayward thoughts.
The door opened. "Antonio. Good to see you." He stood up to take the younger man's hand as he came in and crossed the room. "Is this business or pleasure?"
"Pleasure – I hope." Antonio answered. He took the seat that Bo gestured to. "I have a proposition for you."
"Oh, about what?"
"Well, I need some help with a few matters, but first off, how do you feel about New York City?"
Layla hung up the phone and turned to Starr. "I can't believe we're doing this." She said to Starr.
"Believe it." Starr said. The morning after their conversation, she had come up with the story that she wanted to go Christmas shopping alone with Layla. Thinking that she was a little old to want to be around a bunch of little kids for so long, Nora, Alexis, Evangeline and the kiddies had gone on to breakfast and their plans for the morning without her.
Once they'd been alone, Starr had outlined her plan. And now, here they were.
"So what did he say?"
"Antonio said so far so good."
"One down, two to go." Starr fixed her gaze on Layla. "Make the call."
Layla shook her head and reached for the phone.
He answered his phone on the first ring. She cut right to the chase. "John McBain, how do you feel about second chances?"
"Layla Williamson, is this you? What is this about?"
"You're the big-shot detective…you have to ask? What do you think. Or in the interest of keeping it real, who do you think this is about?"
"Your sister."
"Yes, my sister. You remember her, don't you? You broke her heart."
"I didn't mean to…" John began but Layla cut him off.
"You didn't mean to what? To hurt her? To lead her on? To play with her head and her heart? To never tell her you loved her!"
Her words sent a roaring red rush of feelings through John. It wasn't true, none of it was. He'd never meant to hurt Evangeline. She'd been the best thing that had ever happened to him, but he'd figured it out too late. And what Layla was accusing him of was dead wrong.
"You never told her you loved her, John. And that hurt her. You hurt my sister in the deepest part of her. Do you even care?"
She was so wrong – she didn't know, couldn't know what he and Evangeline had shared. She couldn't know how much it hurt to see he around town and know that she was hiding her pain from him. Pain he'd caused. She couldn't know how much that it had hurt him knowing that he had put that pain on her. And how much more he hated himself.
No, Layla couldn't know just how much he missed her, missed her laugh, missed her smile, missed her arms around him and her kisses, especially in the middle of all the lonely nights. His head and heart pounded and he could hear Layla still accusing him of things that weren't true, that had never been true and at last, John exploded. "I loved her!" he shouted into the phone. "I never stopped. I still love her!"
There came a silence. And then Layla spoke again. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"There's nothing I can do about it. Evangeline made that very clear."
"And if I told that maybe you had a second chance at making things right?"
John didn't hesitate. "Just tell me what I have to do."
"You were right." Layla said after finishing her phone call.
"Of course I was." Starr said smugly. "Strong, silent type? I know all about them. That's my dad My mother told my Aunt Kelly once that men do all kinds of stuff that makes no sense to us, all in the name of protecting us."
"And you were eavesdropping again at the time, weren't you?"
Starr's expression said that the point wasn't even worth discussing. "John let Evangeline walk away because he thought that it would protect her from more hurt than he'd already given her. All I had to do is watch my mom to figure out what to do. And the answer was that sometimes you just gotta light a fuse under certain kinds of guys to get them going."
"Well, I can't argue with you. We lit one, all right. He's on the way. That leaves…" Layla took a deep breath and Starr finished the sentence for her.
"Sonny Corinthos. I know."
"Starr, I don't know if we can do this – or even if we should. And the more I think about it, the more I think we shouldn't. We don't know what this man might do if we make him angry."
"I think if we talk to him about Alexis, he won't be angry at all."
Layla shook her head. "I gotta think about this some more."
"There's no time." Starr insisted. "We have to do this now."
"I think maybe we should be happy with two outta three." Layla said. She stood up and headed for the kitchen. "You want a soda or something?"
Starr shook her head, and watched Layla carefully until she was out of the room before reaching for her cell phone.
Sonny rattled around in his over-large house, not knowing what to do with himself. This house was made for kids, and he'd decorated every inch of it for Christmas; it was a true winter wonderland from top to bottom, inside and out – the kids had all loved it. But without them it was sadly empty, and the lights twinkled almost sadly, it seemed to him. They were all gone tonight. The boys had gone to visit Carly at Rose Lawn and then to spend the night with Bobbie and Kristina was out of town on a trip with her mother and her baby sister.
Christmas-time in New York City. Sony smiled to himself. How he'd love to take Kristina around the streets of the city, showing her the sights, the window displays, or Rockefeller Center, maybe even a carriage ride through Central Park. He didn't love her more than the boys but there as something special about having a little girl... especially one that reminded him of the best qualities of himself. and her mother...
A part of his heart ached for what might have been...there were two little girls now, two little girls with chestnut-dark hair and dimpled cheeks. But only one was his.
That still boggled his mind; the fact that Alexis had another child. Surely that had closed the door between them like nothing else had. When he would allow it, he had tried to convince himself that in spite of everything that had gone on between them, they still had that special bond. But the birth of Molly had shown him all too clearly that Alexis had moved on with her life. And why that bothered him was an emotion Sonny couldn't bring himself to examine closely at all.
Suddenly he was remembering that moment in the train wreck when she had raised her hand to his face and told him that she still saw the man that he was once. And that was when he'd known that the feelings they shared were still there. What now seemed like a lifetime of miscues and mistakes stood between them, but it was still there.
He hadn't realized it until he had realized that he might lose her. They both knew it, but he didn't say anything. But she had looked up at him, and as always, she knew. And that had been enough.
After all, she'd loved him enough to have his child, hadn't she?
But she'd had Ric's child too. Another little girl to melt a daddy's heart.
Sonny shook his head. So much for the love-child theory. In the light of Molly's conception and birth, what was that saying? That she loved Ric now? Funny that he hadn't gone to NYC with her.
Losing Alexis to Ric had been bad enough. They were civil enough these days as far as Kristina was concerned, but now she and Ric had a child. His brother, once again, had the family that should have been his.
Sonny couldn't even find it in him to be mad at Ric. He'd practically handed him Alexis. He'd been hateful towards her. He didn't realize until it was too late that it had been his own rage, pride and pain that had caused him to lash out at Alexis the way that he had. Fighting her for sole custody had been the one sure way of hurting her. He didn't realize it until much much later that it had been all about his own pain. If he couldn't have her love, then he would have her hate. And if she hurt, well then, her feeling something was infinitely better than her feeling nothing.
And that pain had driven her straight into Ric's arms. Ric - who had set out to use Alexis as a way to hurt him, but claimed to have fallen in love with her after all. But here was here in Port Charles, and Alexis was in New York City. Did he dare to hope that this mean something? Did he want it to?
The night he'd gotten home from the train wreck, he'd slid into his bed, thankful to rest and be safe at last, but his sleep had been unexpectedly troubled. In his dreams, he found himself back in the tunnel, back looking into Alexis' eyes...and to his horror, had seen the light of her life fade away into nothingness. It had jerked him awake with a horrified cry of her name on his lips. Sonny had trembled, knowing with an awful sense of loss that she could have died and all the words he'd never had to say would stay forever unspoken.
And that was the moment when he had realized that he loved Alexis still.
But she'd found a new life and if he cared anything for her, he had to let her go. No matter what hurt he had to go through. He owed Alexis that, at least.
On the heels of that thought, his cell phone rang and Sonny snatched it up, eager for anything to bring him back into the present. "Hello?"
"Mr. Corinthos?"
He didn't recognize the voice and he straightened up, his senses instantly alert and on guard. "Who is this?"
Starr swallowed nervously. This had seemed like such a good idea at the time it had come to her. But the man that answered the phone sounded like a man who didn't take any nonsense. He reminded her of her father when he was onto something. People were scared of her dad when he got like that. This guy sounded a lot like him.
Layla walked back into the room. It took less than one minute for her to figure out what Starr was doing and who she was talking to..
Are you crazy? She mouthed at Starr, her eyes wide in shock.
Starr shook her head. She wasn't crazy, just determined. And it was too late to back off now. She took a deep breath and continued. "You don't know me, Mr. Corinthos, but I'm calling about Alexis Davis."
Sonny's heart suddenly thumped a few beats out of rhythm. "Alexis? Is she all right? What about the girls?"
"The girls are fine. Alexis is fine. Mostly."
"Mostly?"
"She's fine. Except for her heart. And that's why I'm calling you."