Part 8 PG-13

Carly knew she had to face the music sometime, but putting it off allowed her to think some miracle might happen.

But things never righted themselves that way.

She couldn't hide it anymore. She got sick, she felt weak, she fainted. Each incident piled up. Finally Sonny asked her if she should see a doctor.

"No," she said weakly. "I'm all right. I have --- I have – "

"Have?"

"Bad news?"

"Don't look like a scared puppy, Carly! What's on your mind?"

"There's a really stupid thing I did."

"What now?"

"It can be all right. Really, it can. There is something we can work out."

"What is it?"

"I'm - I'm - pregnant."

"Wh-wh-why is that bad news?"

"I'm eight weeks along."

He stood, stunned.

"Who?"

"Does it matter? It doesn't really. Look Sonny, we tried so hard so long. And I get pregnant at once. The problem with infertility must be yours. You adopted Michael. This will work out. Better than going through all that infertility treatment, and the uncertainty, and - "

"Get out!"

"But, but - "

"Get OUT!"

She ran for the door.

She practically ran to Jason's. When she got there, she pounded on the door with both arms. "Let me in, Jason!" she yelled.

Jason opened the door. "Come in, Carly."

He shut the door. He told her to sit down.

"I told him! It was the worst nightmare possible! He yelled at me to get out!"

"That's only temporary, Carly."

"You should have seen the look on his face!"

"That's only temporary, Carly"

"At least I told him before that slut did."

"That is good."

"Damn Zander for getting me pregnant!"

"He had help, Carly."

"If only - "

"I know, Carly."

"It would be bad enough as it is. But no. That Brenda bitch has to show up."

"Yes."

"She can't just be in town flaunting her wares. She has to fling them at Zander."

"That's very bad."

"It's like she can get herself involved about decisions concerning my child."

"You knew Zander was volatile when you got involved with him."

"She's equally as bad!"

"She is."

"Isn't there some way to make them leave? Maybe he committed a crime or something."

Jason was silent.

"Thanks for listening," she said. "If you need me, I'll be at my mother's."

"Well, that's good, Carly, you did it! Got it over with. The worst is over."

"No, the worst is when Sonny tells me he wants nothing to do with me."

"Don't assume that."

Carly worried all night and hardly slept. In the morning, she had Letitia bring Michael over. That might teach Sonny. Let him be alone.

But then if he was alone, he was open to the maneuverings of that hussy.

She paced the floor, unsure what to do.

Eventually, she went to the Port Charles Hotel to ask if Miss Barrett was in. The guy behind the desk said she wasn't.

Carly panicked, about sure that slut was now up in her penthouse having sex with her husband.

Carly was about to leave, when she saw that hussy was not, at least, at that very moment in her penthouse having sex with her husband, but walking into the Port Charles Hotel wearing a tennis outfit.

"Here to see me?" Brenda asked, pretending to be pleasant.

"Here to make sure you're not stalking Sonny," was all Carly could think of to say.

"He came to see me last night," Brenda said.

Carly's stomach dropped to her feet. She felt entirely fearful.

"When?" she asked, mockingly, as if she expected the answer would reveal Brenda was lying.

"Oh, about seven p.m."

That was well before she had dropped her news onto Sonny.

Carly felt a rising panic.

"He stayed as long as I let him," the bitch added.

Carly walked out, completely beside herself.

She found Sonny at his warehouse. He did his usual protests about her showing up at his place of work.

"Shut up," she said. "Brenda Barrett just told me you went to see her."

"I was only telling her she should avoid Zander."

"Hell you were. You were making eyes at her. Probably in bed with her when I felt so bad for you having to attend to business that late at night."

"Carly, you are trying to make me as guilty as you are, but I was not doing any such thing. Jason told me she was fooling with Zander and I only went to tell her she is fooling with fire, that's all. You of all people should know that. It is you he tried to seduce."

"Tried - " Carly stopped, realizing he had not guessed that Zander was the one. He thought it was some mysterious other.

But how could she take advantage of that when Zander already knew? And that bitch knew?

She thought of asking him if he didn't want to know who the father was, but decided that subject was the wrong way to approach it. Let the father be anonymous for as long as possible.

"Have you thought about this child?" she asked. "It could be our child, and there is no reason why not. It is way easier than infertility treatments or adopting. How would any adoption agency, once they realize what you do, allow you to adopt a child?"

He looked at her. "All right. It is worth considering. Now go home."

She went home, half elated. Maybe it was going to work out.

Of course every time she looked at the child, she might see -

No, she decided not to think about that. She could be lucky and the child could look just like her. Michael took after her mother. This child might take after Carly and Bobbie.

Even if the child looked like Zander, she as his mother would still love him. But Sonny might be a different story.

But if Sonny continued to lack curiosity about the child's actual father - he probably thought it was some guy she had met in a bar and suddenly and impulsively, because he, Sonny, had broken her heart, she had jumped into bed with this guy. Only once. That was why she was so fertile she got pregnant right away with some other guy, proving for once and for all Sonny was the one who had the infertility problem.

No reason for Sonny to know she had slept with Zander too many times to count.

And why would Zander tell? She had to find a way to convince him that parenthood was too much for him. She mulled this problem over for awhile, and soon had an idea.

"I don't know why you continue hoping to carry out the hopeless quest of fooling Sonny," Bobbie said to Carly. "Zander knows. All he has to do is get upset at Sonny, or you, to tell Sonny."

"Sonny might not believe him. He doesn't think Zander's all there."

"Well, his lack of respect for Zander makes Zander no threat to him. So why would he mind? Why is the anonymous father better?"

"Because he would have been gone, and not care."

"True. Zander does."

"Oh, mother, I don't think he cares about this child!"

"I do."

Carly sighed. She sat down.

"The main fact is out," Bobbie said. "And Sonny hasn't left you."

"That is still an open question. But he did say adopting this child was worth thinking about."

"That's a lot. Much better than you expected."

"Yes." She took her mother's hand. "Thank you," she said.

"Whoever is going to take the role of father," Bobbie said. "That child is my grandchild. I'm going to make you take better care of yourself. Let go of some of this stress."

Carly took a big breath and relaxed. "You're the best, mother."

"I'm going to get you a cup of tea."

"Thank you," she said. Her hand went to her stomach, which was churning a bit. She smiled. The first time in this pregnancy. She remembered how you always want to put your hand over your stomach. As if you are feeling the progress of the child's growth, or protecting him or her.
This was another person, physically part of her and partly created right from her, and even from the kind woman making tea in the other room.

But that provoked her memory to consideration of another person's body. Hard and muscular. Strong in a youthful way. Active and quick-moving, hands that never stopped, and the feel of his hair failing across her shoulder.

She tried to clear it out. It bothered her too much.

But she could not resent him totally. The child would have some part of all that, too. She was sure she would have no baby without him. He had given her second child to her as much as she was giving him his first.

She had thought Sonny had the power to take everything from her. But he didn't.

She was used to fighting with AJ over their child. She could never have gotten her way over AJ and his family without Sonny. Fighting with Sonny was out of the question; she'd never win.

But fighting with Zander was another matter. This was one she could take on.

Zander heard a knocking at his hotel door. He looked out. It was Carly. Damn.

He was really shocked when he saw she had Michael and another little boy with her.

"I was hoping you could help me," she said.

Without waiting for a response, she ushered Michael and his friend Anthony Barton into Zander's hotel room.

She had called Phyllis Barton and had to wait until today for it to work out. Carly had thought and thought, and hit upon Anthony Barton as the brattiest of Michael's friends.

"I have to meet someone at the airport," she said. "And I could take Michael and his friend Anthony with me, but there might be a lot of waiting. It would be way easier if I could leave them with someone else. It's Letitia's day off."

For all people thought Zander was stupid, there were ways in which he was not. He immediately saw Carly's plan.

"Fine," he said, casually. "Leave them with me."

"Thanks," Carly said, almost flustered with what appeared to be perfect workings, thus far, of her plan. "You be good boys for Zander," she said. Zander caught her winking at the two little boys. Then she walked off down the hall.

"Well," he said, turning his head from watching her go down the hall, "Let's - "

Anthony was giggling and jumping up and down on the couch. Michael had taken Zander's leather jacket and was laying it out on a chair.

He and Michael knew each other from the time he had worked for Carly.

"So what's up, Michael?" he asked. He ignored Anthony.

Michael hummed and pushed the jacket further into the chair.

Anthony kept jumping. "Ping, ping," he said, with each jump.

Carly had not left him any toys for them. Zander knew that was standard courtesy and protocol. He had not followed her around as her bodyguard and not noticed anything. She really thinks I'm stupid, he reflected.

He could go out and buy something, but he would have to take them with him. He knew from observation also, not to take kids into a toy store.

His phone rang. It was Brenda. It was a bummer that he couldn't take her on now. But on the other hand - .

"Hello, beautiful," he said, answering.

She heard a little voice yelling, "ping, ping," in the background.

"Who is that?" she asked.

"Carly's latest plan."

"I'll be right up."

Zander sighed. Then he smiled to himself.

He saw his shoes. "This is a car," he said to Michael. He pretended to drive the shoe along a road across the floor. "Vroom. Vroom." He took the other shoe. "Here's yours."

Michael took the shoe. "Voom, voom," he said, driving the shoe.

"Let's have a race."

Anthony did not think this was right. He ought to have his own car, too. He stopped jumping. As he stopped himself, he was so far to the end of the couch, that his arm swiped the lamp. It was light, and it tottered. Zander jumped up instinctively to save it from falling over. Then Anthony jumped off the couch, but he did it so awkwardly that his body flipped sideways. Zander caught him just as his head was about to hit the coffee table.

"Great save," he congratulated himself.

There was a knocking at the door, as he put Anthony down. But then he saw Michael holding up his Chase Prep high school transcript.

"Come in," he yelled, as he dove to save the transcript.

Michael was just about to ball it up.

Brenda came in, smiling wickedly in the exact way he had known she would be when she came in.

"Clever," Brenda said. "I never thought I would say this. I admire Carly immensely today."

"Don't just stand there and admire Carly," Zander said. "Help me."

"Let's see. What can I do?"

"Go out and get some toys," Zander said. "She purposely didn't leave any."

Anthony was driving the other shoe now, saying "vroom, vroom."

"Look," she said. "Kids are so creative. They don't need toys. They make them out of anything."

"That's not too bad," he said. "But that goes to my credit. They also make toys of my leather jacket and my transcript, and the couch is a trampoline."

"What about the park?" she said.

"The park! Right! Obvious!"

Zander took Michael by the hand and Brenda took Anthony. Anthony objected. "No choice," Brenda told him firmly. "We are crossing the street. Boys cannot cross the street without holding a big person's hand."

"I can go inna woad myseff," Anthony said.

"No you don't!" Zander said. "The police will come and give you a ticket!"

Anthony's eye's widened with fascination.

"Poweece gimme a ticket?" he said.

"Yes," Brenda said. "A very bad ticket. That says you must stay in your room and nap all afternoon."

"Oh," Anthony said.

There was a little merry-go-round in the park. Zander pulled on it to make it go fast. The boys laughed in sheer delight.

"Not too fast," Brenda cautioned. "You don't want them getting sick on you."

"That's right," Zander said. He hit the spinning bars one by one until it slowed down some. "You're my salvation."

When the merry-go-round stopped, both boys walked around on it for awhile.

"Hold old are you, Michael?" she asked.

"Twee," he said. "Wanna see my owie?"

"Oh, yes. Where is it?"

He pointed to his forearm. There was a cut there, healing up, so tiny that it took her awhile to see it.

"How did you get that?" she asked.

"I bang it onna coffee table," he said.

"Oh," she said. "You'll be more careful now, around the big, bad coffee table, won't you?"

"Ess," he said. "Push me onna swing."

"OK," Brenda said. "Come on Anthony."

"No!" Anthony said.

"Yes, come on. We're going on the swings."

"No!" Anthony re-iterated.

"Come along, Anthony," Zander said. "Brenda is the big person. She told you it's time to go to the swing."

"NO!"

Zander grabbed him and started carrying him over to the swing.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he yelled as if he were being kidnapped. His arms flailed and his legs kicked.

Two women were sitting on a bench, one with a baby, the other with a toy bear in her hands. They looked over. Zander felt a bit of dread. It struck him that they were going to call the police. But when he looked more closely, he saw that they were grinning.

When they got to the swing, Zander put Anthony on and started to push him. Anthony's protests suddenly vanished. "Hiyuh," he commanded.

"Tell a stowee," Michael said.

Brenda said, "Once upon a time, there was a big bad wolf."

"So original," Zander said.

"OK, improve on it, genius."

"He was an organized crime boss," Zander said.

"Which is a very wicked thing to do," Brenda continued. "He stole from all the businessmen, including Tony the Mouse, who only tried to sell cheese out of his cheese store on Main Street."

"He stole cheese, and he told Tony that he would hurt Tony if Tony called police."

"Mrs. Chicken liked to sell eggs, and the Wolf stole those too and said the same thing to her."

"Peter the Policeman saw what was going on."

"And he didn't like it."

The boys were silent, listening intently.

They pushed them a little while longer. Then Brenda asked them if they wanted to race over to a tree.

They liked that idea.

When they got there, breathing hard from running, Anthony said, "tell the stowee with Peter the Poweece."

"Well," Zander said. "He saw the wolf, and chased him."

Zander ran around the tree. The boys chased him, giggling with glee.

"He chased him and he chased him until he caught the wolf," Brenda giggled.

Zander lay flat down as though exhausted and caught. "Then Peter grabbed him and handcuffed him." He put his hands behind his back.

The boys pretended to cuff him. He stood up. "They marched him off to jail," he said.

Giggling, the boys pushed him from behind. At first, he wouldn't move, so they pushed at his back."

"Go, big bag woof!" Anthony commanded.

Zander walked off, moving suddenly from a still position.

They lost their footing and fell down, giggling.

"The big mob wolf went to jail, and the other people lived happily ever after," Brenda added.

When Carly came back, she found a note saying they were at the park. She went down, full of anticipation of victory.

She saw them, Zander, that slut, Michael and Anthony, running around a bench. Zander changed directions suddenly. Michael and Anthony kept running and then laughed hysterically when they ran into him head on.

"Mommy!" Michael yelled. "We payin na game udda big mob woof!"

"What game is that?" Carly smiled, carefully.

"Brenna told da stowee," Michael said.

"I hope you know what kind of story to tell," she said, sternly, to Brenda. "Come on," she said to the boys.

"Bye Zanner," Michael said.

"Bye Michael."

Jason picked Carly and the boys up and took them back to the brownstone. Letitia was waiting.

"Tisha," Michael yelled, "we payed chase the big mob woof! We was the poweece!"

"We caught him," Anthony said, solemnly.

"Oh, that sounds like fun," Letitia said. "Hello, Mrs. Corinthos."

"When we need a babysit again, Mommy, can you take us again to Zanner an Brenna?"

"We'll see. Go get your lunch now," Carly said.

Letitia went off with them.

Carly stamped her foot. "Ohhhhhhhhh!" she groaned in aggravation. "Drat it, Jason!"

Jason stood, arms folder, impassively by the wall.

"To hell with Sonny!" Carly continued. "Would you believe, that when he found out that bitch was sleeping with Zander, it didn't lower his opinion of her one bit. Not at all! You know what he did?"

"What did he do, Carly?"

"He so kindly went to warn her not to do it! He went to her, without telling me, only to help her out and tell her it was not such a good idea to be involved with Zander! But if he finds out about me doing the same thing, he'll be angry!"

"Maybe that's because he loves you, Carly, and not her."

Carly thought about this. It was awfully tempting.

But it was still so annoying that most of her assurances of her husband's love came from his goon, and not from him.

"It's almost his fault!" she said, with a rising irritation. "Why didn't he hire a bodyguard who would just do the job? No, he's the one who claims to know people, yet hires me Zander, who isn't smart enough not to seduce his boss' wife!"

"Leaving aside that you had the choice to avoid the seduction, Carly, truer words were never spoken."

Carly stopped, amazed. "That's the closest you ever came to criticizing Sonny."

"He knows what I think of Zander."

"Too bad you weren't in town then, Jason," she said, "you could have talked him out of hiring Zander."

"True, but what's done is done," he said. "Can't undo spilled milk."

"That's for sure," Carly muttered.