Chapter 22: Ice Cream Solves Almost Everything

"I can't believe Sonny Corinthos has Ben & Jerry's ice cream in his freezer," Alexis said as she dipped her spoon back into the container.

"It was supposed to be a surprise for Kristina after Molly went to bed. I know she is still too young for chocolate."

"You know she will be two in just a few weeks."

"She is really smart she found her way to the carousel all by herself," Sonny said. He caught the look on Alexis's face. "No, Alexis, I didn't let her just wander around the mall, I just let her lead the way."

"I didn't think that!" Alexis insisted.

"Of course you didn't."

"Ok, I had a moment of uncertainty there but then I knew you wouldn't do that," Alexis said.

Sonny decided to take that. "I still remember when she was born," he said.

He would always remember that. When Anthony was born, he hadn't known he would become his. When Kristina was born, he hadn't known she was his. When Morgan was born, he had almost missed it. Ally got some brilliant idea to go look at some house the real estate agent said was to die for. Fortunately, those words hadn't been completely prophetic. Max got Ally to the hospital in time and Sonny had never felt closer to Ally than when he held her hand as she brought their son into the world. It was that memory he supposed that had kept him drowning in the insanity of their multiple dysfunctional marriages. He could see that; he just hadn't been able to before.

"It was a bit unforgettable," Alexis said.

Yes, it definitely had been, Sonny decided as he remembered that day.

November 10, 2005

"I can't believe I'm going to give birth in a train tunnel," Alexis wailed. "This was not how I planned this."

"Well, you know, life is what happens while you're making other plans," Sonny said.

Alexis rolled her eyes at his comment but then her face contorted in pain and she took another death grip on his hand.

Sonny tried to smile through the pain. As Alexis turned onto her side, he started to rub the back of her neck as Max and Brenda came back with more blankets.

"I looked around where you said you found the first aid kit, I didn't find anything else," Max said as he handed the blankets to Emily Quartermaine.

"That's ok, I think we'll be ok. You have shoelaces," Emily said.

Max looked at her like he didn't understand. Sonny wasn't sure he did either.

"We have to have something to tie off the umbilical cord with. There are scissors and tape in that first aid box but string or shoelaces will work better," Emily explained.

"Do you use suture in the hospital?" Max asked.

"No, they have these cord clamps that are this hard plastic material they just snap together and lock. But this can work what you're going to do is tie in two places and then we will cut in between. Leave a couple of inches attached to the baby. They can trim it later at the hospital."

Alexis seemed to regain some composure. "You've done this before right?"

"Yes, I did OB as my first clerkship over the summer," Emily said but her words were drowned out by Alexis's scream.

"Hey, you're ok. Just try to breathe through this," Sonny said as he started to rub the back of her neck again.

"The contractions are almost on top of each other. Let me just check maybe you can start to push now, and you can have this baby," Emily said as she reached into the box of gloves for a new pair.

"I really don't want to have this baby here," Alexis said in between gasps.

"I know but you're fully dilated, and I can feel the head in the birth canal so you can push with the next contraction. The fluid was clear which is great because we don't have suction anyway so we're just going to get this baby out and then we'll go from there," Emily said.

Sonny caught the apprehension that appeared on her face. It hadn't been there before. He tried to meet her eyes, but she turned away to where Max was taking the black laces out of his shoes. He started to stand up but Alexis pulled him back down.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I was just going to get you some water," Sonny said. That wasn't the complete truth though and Alexis probably knew that.

"I don't need water. I need you," Alexis said as she clung to his hand.

Sonny sat back down beside her and glanced over at Emily again. She still looked worried as she rearranged the stack of blankets.

"Here, boss," Max said as he passed him a bottle of water.

"Thank you," Sonny said as he set it down beside him.

"What is…" Alexis started to ask before she screamed in pain again.

"Ok you're going to push now."

Alexis shook her head as she panted.

"If you bring your legs up towards your chest it will make it easier. Sonny and Brenda are going to help you," Emily said.

Emily sounded so calm, yet she had the same look in her eyes she had when Jason had been badly injured in the bombing. She had been fourteen then but apparently, she still held her fear in her eyes. Sonny could see that.

"I'm not pushing until you tell me what is wrong. You look the same way you did when Nikolas got mowed down by Skye Chandler three years ago," Alexis said.

"I was just thinking about how much you bled with Kristina and we don't have drugs like Pitocin or any means to do surgery if it came to that," Emily said.

"There must be something else you can do," Sonny said.

"Uterine massage can stimulate the uterus to clamp down and stop bleeding. That was what they did before Pitocin was known about and in many cases that works. It's just you bled a lot with Kristina and that probably means you're at risk to do that again. But that's another reason to try to have this baby. The longer you are in labor the harder it will be for the uterus to clamp down on it's own," Emily said.

"So then let's have a baby! Because I am not letting anything happen to Kristina's mother," Sonny said.

He had known that Kristina needed her mother, but he knew that, even then, that had only been half of it. Emily's plan had worked. Molly was born and Alexis didn't bleed to death.

"But I'm glad you were there," Alexis added.

"I'm glad I was too. I didn't get to be there when Anthony or Kristina were born, and I don't love them less, but it was just special to be able to hold Morgan and Molly when they were new."

"You loved Molly from the moment you held her, didn't you?"

"Of course, she was Kristina's sister and your daughter. How could I not?" Sonny asked. His words were the truth, perhaps some might have argued Molly was his niece but in 2005 the best he could manage there was his mother's granddaughter. She was that too, she had somehow gotten Adela's chin.

"You hated Ric then though."

"I didn't trust Ric. I really didn't trust him around our daughters."

"I suppose given how everything turned out I can't even argue against that. I probably should have divorced him before Molly was born when I found out he was with Reese. Ironically, I thought I was doing what was right for Molly."

"We all make bad choices. I married Ally three times."

"And someday you will marry her a fourth time because you and Ally just seem to suck each other in, then you implode, and while the rest of the city is still digging out from under the fallout of your latest implosion you start all over again."

"No, Ally and I had our final divorce. I used to think we had to hang on for our sons. At other times Ally thought we should hang on for our sons. At mostly non overlapping times as I recall, but, anyway, it doesn't work and Ally and I have to figure out how to share the children we have while living separate lives," Sonny said.

"That sounds great in theory, Sonny, but I know you a little better than that. Just don't have another New Year's Eve wedding those are beyond tacky unless you're really desperate to take the head of household deduction for 2007."

Sonny decided not to ask if Ric had been desperate to claim as head of household in 2003. "You are so funny," he said instead.

"Hmm, Stavros always said I was without a sense of humor. May I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything."

"Was Ric always so deranged and I just missed it? When I walked in on him and Sam, I wanted to believe he just snapped somehow. Major error in judgment but everyone has them, right? Of course, that doesn't really explain Reese or any of the other women that probably did exist I just didn't know about them."

Sonny squeezed his chin as he considered the right answer. In his opinion, yes, Ric had always been deranged.

"You don't have to sugar coat it here, Sonny. It isn't the infidelity that I can't get past. It is everything else that he did. It seems like every time I turn around his body count increases."

"What do you mean?"

"Manny Ruiz killed John Durant on his orders and there are some other open cases that Ric was probably responsible for. Abby went back and audited every case he ever tried. There are a lot of issues. I really shouldn't be telling you this."

"Attorney client privilege goes both ways, right? Or if you want you can give me a dollar later," Sonny suggested with a smile.

Alexis laughed. "Now you are so funny, but seriously I guess this is your opportunity to tell me you told me so."

"That isn't the point. The point is that I wish I had done a better job of protecting my family from Ric. You and the girls will always be part of my family and I should have done better for all of you."

"The FBI thinks Ric is still alive. They think he faked his death in Canada."

So apparently, she trusted him with classified information even if not details of her personal life. "Can they prove it?"

"Not, yet, but I feel like I have to proceed as if it's true. I'm just not sure how to do that."

"I won't let Ric hurt you or our daughters ever again."

"I don't think he would hurt Molly. I think in his own sick way he loved her. He saw himself in Molly, I think. His mother loved you best."

Sonny remembered how she had insisted to him she didn't love Molly more than Kristina when he had offered to stay with Kristina in the hospital so she could go home to Molly. He really had just been thinking about both of them not being alone. "Ric's mother believed that he was dead. You know she probably grieved for Ric until the day she died."

"Well, that isn't the version of history Ric ascribes to. So, in Ric's version, his mother loved you best and somehow that morphed into him convincing himself that I loved your daughter best. I never did. I love Kristina and Molly. They are both special and unique in their own ways, but I think, in Ric's sick and twisted mind, he believed he was doing Molly a favor by filing for sole custody."

"Fortunately that wasn't granted," Sonny said.

"Yes, but a custody order isn't going to stop Ric from taking a child. If he is alive both Kristina and Molly are in danger."

"So, then we have to work together to keep our daughters safe. What is really going on, Alexis?"

"I think I just passed out because I was stressed. I don't remember exactly I just started thinking about Ric and Kristina and then everything just spun out of control."

Sonny pulled her closer to him. "How bad is this illness?"

"I'm probably more likely to die at Ric's hand than from anemia."

As she said the words Sonny realized she wasn't being melodramatic. She truly believed that Ric was going to kill her and, as she laid her head back against his chest, he realized it wasn't something he would put past Ric. "I won't let Ric hurt my family ever again. That includes you, Alexis. We'll figure this out but you have to take care of yourself. Because if you don't, it's just going to be harder. You need rest and regular meals, and you need to be able to relax somehow."

"If you are about to suggest diaphragmatic breathing please just don't."

What is diaphragmatic breathing? "I have no idea what that even is," Sonny said.

"Sorry, you were starting to sound a little bit like Mark there for a minute. Ask him about diaphragmatic breathing, I couldn't do the explanation justice."

He sounded like Dr. Mark Quartermaine? Now there was a scary thought, Sonny decided. "Maybe I'll just pass," he said.

"His cousin, Ned would say that was your loss," Alexis said.

Did he sound like Ned Ashton? That was a very scary thought!

But as he thought about it more, Sonny realized that they did probably care about a lot of the same people Brooke, Kristina, Brenda, Lois, Alexis. Somehow that bothered him less than Jax's seeming obsession with any woman he had ever been connected to. He didn't trust Jax around his sons any more than he had trusted Ric around his daughters. So perhaps there were worse people than Mark or Ned to sound like. "I still think I'll pass," he finally told Alexis.

"You never know it might help you channel your inner calm," Alexis quipped.

"Did Ned tell you that?" Sonny asked. Perhaps Ned had listened to his wife on occasion.

"Something like that why?"

"Lois says that. I was just curious."

"I try to avoid Lois as much as possible so I wouldn't know," Alexis said.

That somewhat surprised Sonny. He knew that even after marrying Ned for the second time Lois still had her moments of finding the Quartermaine life over the top and then some. He sensed that she and Carly connected that way, well and through the reality that they both had children with Ned Ashton. Despite how he felt about their common husband, he was sometimes inspired by the way that both Lois and Carly interacted with and raised Brooklyn and Michael. "Maybe Lois could help you learn how to channel your inner calm," he said.

"Like you said, I think I'll pass, "Alexis said.

"Seriously, though, I think you and Lois have more in common than you think," Sonny said.

"Is this a lead in to I should let Lois raise my kids once you marry her?" Alexis asked.

"Ok, for the last time, I may not have been overjoyed when Lois remarried Ned, but she says she loves him and she is happier with him than without him so I'm supporting her and I'm trying to support them," Sonny said.

"So, there is really nothing going on between you and Lois?" Alexis asked.

"We're basically siblings at this point."

"Well, that's good then she won't have to be your second choice to Ally, or your passed over for Ally," Alexis said.

Sonny sighed. Were those her own fears? Did she actually have feelings for him she was just afraid to act on? He wasn't sure whether to feel frustrated, or hopeful, or both. "Ally and I are in the past. We don't work together. I think we've both accepted that."

"Didn't you say this before? I distinctively seem to remember this around the time Ally married Lorenzo Alcazar. Then I distinctively remember marriage number three which happened oh about six months after that great speech."

"So, marriage three was a mistake. I'll cop to that. At the time I thought it was the right thing for the boys. It wasn't."

"I predict you and Ally will be married again before we ring in 2009."

"It isn't going to happen."

"So, you say now, but six months from now I'm sure it will be a different story."

"It won't be, but rather than another round of will so, will not let's make a friendly little wager. If I haven't married Ally again by the end of 2008 then you have to celebrate New Years Eve with me."

"It doesn't count if you have plans to marry her in 2009."

"Ok, I can live with that condition. So, don't make any plans you can't cancel because I'm going to win."

"We will see about that," Alexis challenged.

"We will. So, besides the anemia what else is wrong? Why the other tests?"

"Monica is overly thorough."

Sonny could sort of see that, but he didn't really think it was the full answer. "Ok so what does she think it is?"

"The anemia was her main concern, but it isn't that bad. It has been worse before."

"Ok, so why the lung function tests?"

"I was wheezing but supposedly that can happen from hyperventilation. But Kristina has asthma and I guess she must have gotten it from somewhere and I guess there was something on the CT scan, so Monica thought it was a good idea."

"You're terrified of Ric, aren't you?"

"I'm more afraid for Kristina."

Sonny knew that Alexis had always been protective of her children. She made sacrifices for them. Was her fear maternal concern or was it the reality that Ric would kill his niece? Perhaps it was hard to argue against that since he had sent a deranged killer to shoot up the family dinner table while his nephews were eating at it. He had killed Ally's unborn child. Sonny still wasn't convinced he hadn't helped Faith kidnap Anthony, Kristina, and Morgan and he had professed to love Kristina's mother then. Actually, Ric had professed to love him in early 2005, not that Sonny had believed that. So, yeah, as sick as it was, Ric probably would kill his niece, if he even considered Kristina that. Perhaps Kristina was just the daughter of the brother he hated. Perhaps there was no reprieve for Kristina from being his mother's granddaughter because perhaps Ric hated, and resented Adela even more than he hated his brother. Sonny had never really let himself see that because it seemed almost sacrilegious, but he suspected it was true.

"We aren't going to let anything happen to Kristina."

"So you think Ric could kill his own niece?" Alexis asked.

"Nothing is going to happen to Kristina. But I don't think Ric considers Kristina his niece and being Adela's granddaughter probably doesn't count for much with him. Being Molly's sister could be her saving grace but from what you've said perhaps, in Ric's twisted mind, he would believe that taking Kristina out of the equation was something good he could do for Molly."

"How did I marry this guy?" Alexis asked.

Sonny couldn't answer that question. He had mulled it over in his mind for years.

"You can say I told you so at any time here," Alexis added.

"That isn't important. Keeping our daughters safe is."

"Ok, usually this is where you fly off the handle and throw some glassware."

"Well, those days are in the past. I'm not the same man that you didn't want to be Kristina's father. I guess I can't expect you to see that overnight," Sonny said. However, it had been over a year so perhaps she would never see it. Or perhaps she would never see it until he truly got out of the mob. He didn't want to do that for her though. Not that he wouldn't do it for her, because he would. But he felt like it needed to be for his kids. It was probably semantics; Alexis would say that. But semantics were important to her so maybe they mattered.

"It wasn't that I didn't want you to be Kristina's father. It was that I didn't want to raise a child on the edge of violence. That was our childhoods, and it didn't do either of us any favors."

So maybe Kristina wasn't the only one who wished Alexis and Mark hadn't divorced. "So, I guess the noble thing would have been for me to have just stepped back and let Mark raise my daughter. Maybe it would have. Ric probably would have never been in her life. She probably wouldn't have been kidnapped or have watched Ric shoot Jason. But maybe she would grow up just as bitter, sick, and twisted as her grandmother's son. Maybe that would be even worse," Sonny said. He wondered if his words were just more justification.

"I won't take Kristina away from you. I guess I just wish things could be different, but they can't so I guess you're right we work together to protect our daughters. John Quartermaine arranged for police protection so just make sure your men are on their best behavior while they're keeping my babies safe."