The screaming was so loud, and it wasn't like the screaming he was used to. Mom and Dad argued all the time. That's all he could really remember of them. Sure, there were the happy times. Before Alcazar showed up. Between all the times that Mom and Dad split up. They would laugh. Dad would shake his head about the things that Mom tried to eat. Mom would try to talk her way out of them. Those were all the happier times. Even before Morgan was born. Back when they were happy.

The recent memories, though… They were filled with screams and arguments. Filled with anger and insults being hurled. Fighting about Alcazar. Fighting about Sam. Fighting about him and Morgan. Alexis and Kristina. Back to Alcazar. Back to Sam. Back to him and Morgan. Always fighting. Always so mad at each other. But… he wouldn't hurt her.

These screams, though… He was hurting her. He yelled at her, screamed, and all Michael could do was sit on the top of the steps, rocking back and forth. He put his hands over his ears and tried to block it out. He tried to remember laughing. He tried to remember sitting in the park. He thought of Jason, but that didn't help either. It did give him an idea, though…

But calling Jason meant he had to take his hands from his ears. He had to listen to Dad scream at her, yell at her. He had to hear that sound… Like something hitting something else. But, she was okay. As long as she was screaming, she was okay. It was only when she stopped screaming, but that smacking sound was still there, that Michael took his hands from his ears.

Slowly, he crept down the stairs. And there he was. Sitting on her, punching her over and over. His fists came down so hard. Didn't he see the blood? "Stop it! You're hurting her!" He didn't look up. He just kept hitting her. "Stop it! Dad, stop! You're gonna kill her! Stop!"

But, he wouldn't, and… and… he couldn't just let him kill her. He couldn't just stand there and watch.

Michael ran to his room. The baseball bat in the corner. Jason was going to teach him how to play. Sometimes he wanted to be like his father, but others, he wanted to play baseball. He wanted to stand in Yankee Stadium and listen to the people cheer. He wanted to hit home runs and sign foul balls.

He wouldn't be hitting any foul balls with this bat.

He was still hitting her when Michael hit the bottom step. Still punching and there was so much blood. Where was Max? Of course. It wasn't his job to butt in. He kept Dad safe. He didn't care what happened to the rest of them, not really. If Dad wanted someone hurt…

"Stop it!" One more chance. He gave him one more chance, but it was like he didn't even hear him. He didn't stop. He didn't listen to Michael. So Michael did what he had to do. He swung… and he kept on swinging.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Sam ran into the room because she heard Michael screaming. She stopped at the door because she saw Michael swinging. His eyes were closed. He was obviously still asleep. He was stuck back then, earlier in the day, when he'd been forced to do the unthinkable.

"You can't kill her! I won't let you kill my mom!" His legs were spread, his knees bowed. His arms moved from side to side, swinging away. Then, he changed and he brought his arms down straight, over and over again.

What was it they said? Don't wake a sleepwalker. Enough damage had been done to Michael. Sam couldn't bear to do more. But neither could she bare to move to him. He would wake up and look at her with those haunted eyes again. So much pain in there, pain that he should never have had to experience.

She wished that Jason were there. He would know what to do. Sam barely knew Michael. The boy only accepted her as a favor to Jason. She didn't have the right to stop him. Her arms didn't have the comfort necessary to hold him. Jason, though… he had all of that, and as soon as he came back…

But, she didn't know how long that would be. Sam took a step forward, then stopped as Michael's swinging ceased. He dropped hard to his knees, exhausted. Michael let out a strangled cry and bent forward. He dropped down until he needed his hands to hold him up, then crawled across the floor. He only moved a foot or two before he dropped down again.

Michael hugged the empty floor and Sam knew for sure what she was watching. Michael was reliving the entire nightmare. They tried to get him to talk about it before, and he would say nothing. But now… Now, he was doing it all over again. Killing his father, over and over again, and each time the result would be the same. Each time, Sonny ended up dead, and Michael hugged his bleeding mother.

"He's reliving it." Sam jumped at the voice behind her. She blinked at Nikolas Cassadine. He had to be the last person she expected help from. No, that was wrong. Alexis was the last person she expected to help. Nikolas was just a continuation of that. "You have to let him play it out."

"How do you know that?"

"There are things that my uncle taught me that I thought I would never use. Every avenue of education was at my disposal, including psychology." Nikolas slid his hands into his pockets. "When he's finished, he'll fall back asleep, and that's when you go to him. He's sleepwalking, and that could be disastrous."

Sam turned back to Michael and watched. Sure enough, Nikolas was right. Michael moved away from the phantom Carly, pushing himself from the floor. So vivid was the reinactment that he even stepped over her body. He moved a few feet away, then crawled across the floor. Crawled under something? He rose his knees, wrapped his arms around them, then rocked back and forth. He'd been that way ever since.

After a few minutes of rocking, Michael laid down on his side. His eyelids fluttered, then his body straightened. He was asleep again, and the memory was gone. At least for a little while.

Sam looked behind her before moving across the floor. Of all people to look to for approval, she turned to Nikolas. She barely knew him outside of that mess with the Haunted Star, and she hated his aunt. But, Jason wasn't there, and he seemed to know what he was doing. That was more than Sam could say for herself.

Nikolas gave her a slow nod and Sam turned. She walked across the floor slowly, moving with caution until she reached Michael. Sam knelt down and reached a tentative hand towards him. She lightly brushed her fingers along his cheek. He didn't shriek from her touch, and Sam took that to be a good sign. A sign to move on and do more.

Sam sat on the floor and carefully pulled Michael into her lap. He curled against her, and whatever maternal instincts were left over from Lila poured around him. She held him tightly to her chest, rocking as much as she could while seated on the floor. She looked up to Nikolas and asked, "Why did you come up here?"

"Other than the fact that I could hear his screams down the hall?" Nikolas sighed and shook his head. "Jason and Alexis are on there way. They've reached the launch and should be here soon. I thought you would like to know that."

"Thank you." Sam looked down at Michael for a moment, and when she looked up, Nikolas was leaving the room. "Nikolas…" He turned halfway towards her. "Thanks. For, um… for helping us. I know you and Jason…"

Nikolas shook his head and put a hand up as interruption. "This isn't about Jason, or even Alexis or me, for that matter. It's about him. And he doesn't deserve any of this. And neither did Carly."

"What about Sonny?"

Nikolas's eyes were cold as he said, "If the story that Alexis told me is true, and from watching Michael move around the room, I suspect it was, then he deserved everything that happened to him. I only wish that someone other than that little boy had done it."

Nikolas left the room, and Sam was alone with Michael. She looked down at him. He was so innocent. He was a boy that had done so much in his short life. He took charge, and he could be a bit of a bully. But right then, he was just a little boy who was in pain. Had he ever sucked his thumb? It didn't matter, because he was doing it now. That one comforting thing that all children had. For the first time, she really did see a little innocent boy when she looked at Michael, instead of the miniature replication of Sonny.

She sighed and brushed amber hair back from his freckled face. "Yeah, he's right," she said softly. "He got exactly what he deserved. But just like Nikolas, I really wish you weren't the one that had to do it."