Chapter Nine
It had been nearly a month since Sonny had signed away his right's to Kristina and since Morgan had spent the night, and it was obvious that those two things had affected him profoundly. He had a sour disposition and barked at almost everyone who crossed his path, all expect Claudia, but that's because when he was around her he didn't say much of anything. Except during the night when they were alone in their room, only then would he let his guard down as he made love to her, whispering sweet nothings into her ears. During the day he'd shoot her brief glances and grunts as conversation. She didn't push the issue understanding that he needed time and some space. All the guards, however, walked around on eggs shells and flipped coins to see who would bring Sonny the mail, or give him his messages, or drive him around, they all seemed too scared to even talk to him.
Claudia figured that this day would be no different, so when she came down for a quick breakfast before heading out to the gym, she wasn't surprised to find Sonny at his desk sulking as he read over some paperwork. "Good Morning," She said with a cheery smile, and Sonny only mumbled out a 'morning' never taking his eyes from his work. Claudia simply pursed her lips and mouthed an, 'OK' before moving to the bar to pour herself a tall glass of O.J. She took a big gulp of the juice and then nearly spit it back up, but she forced it down as she gagged with a sour look on her face.
"Ugg," She said as she shook her head a bit and sat the glass down atop the bar.
"What's wrong is it sour?" Sonny asked now giving her his full attention. "Milo squeezed that fresh this morning and he knows I like it sweet."
"No, it's fine I guess I just don't have a taste for it today." Claudia quickly replied trying to defuse the spark of anger she could see in his eyes, she knew it usually led to an angry lashing from Sonny onto one of the guards.
"Milo!" Sonny yelled out.
"Sonny, the juice is fine," Claudia said again trying to calm the situation just as Milo entered the room.
"Yeah boss." The young man spoke in a shaky tone.
"How do I like my Orange Juice?" Sonny asked as he took on a menacing demeanor.
"Your, Orange Juice, sir?" Milo repeated not sure if it was a rhetorical question, the look Sonny shot him told him otherwise and he hastily answered. "Uh, you like your orange juice freshly squeezed, no seeds, very little pulp, and very sweet."
"Then tell me why the hell is my wife gagging on bitter orange juice?" Milo turned to Claudia with large apologetic eyes.
"I'm so sorry about that Mrs. C."
"I didn't say it was bitter," She said glaring directly at Sonny. "Its fine Milo I just don't have a taste for it this morning." Claudia stated giving the young guard a kind smile. "It's fine, really."
"No it's not fine, because when I ask you do something I expect you to do it 'exactly' the way I ask you to."
"Of course, I'm sorry boss I'll go make a fresh batch right now." Milo said stumbling over his words and then scrabbled to the bar to retrieve the tray holding the juice. Claudia looked from him to Sonny with a look of confusion.
"You don't have to do that Milo," Claudia said looking back at the guard but Milo was already rushing to the kitchen with the tray. "I can't believe you're making him squeeze more orange juice, there was nothing wrong with it, and did you even drink any of it?" She asked curiously.
"Yeah, I had a glass," Sonny mumbled out as he shrugged his shoulders.
"And?"
"It was good to me," He replied. "But you know you didn't think so, so…"
"I thought I wanted some orange Juice but I didn't, that's all it was, Sonny. I think I want some mango juice."
"Ok then, he can make you some of that. Milo!" Sonny yelled out for the young man again.
"No I don't want him to make it for me." Claudia said in frustration as she folded her arms and rolled her eyes shut in irritation.
"Yeah Boss?" Milo spoke as he re-entered the room wearily, wondering what he had done wrong this time.
"My wife would like some mango juice,"
"Sure thing Mrs. C. how exactly would you like it?" Milo asked seemingly eager to please her.
"I can make my own mango juice Milo." Claudia said in a calm voice even though her anger was reaching its boiling point all due to Sonny's behavior. "But thank you for offering to make it for me."
"It's no trouble Mrs. C, I really don't mind."
"I know you don't but really, no thank you." She said and Milo turned to Sonny for the final say. Sonny causally rolled his eyes and he shrugged his shoulders and slightly shook his head.
"Ok then I'll just go finish making the orange juice." Milo said and then headed back to the kitchen.
"Why are you being such an ass hole?" She asked even though she already knew the why.
"Don't curse me." He warned as he set menacing eyes onto her.
"I wasn't cursing you I was stating a fact. You've been moping around here for weeks, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf. I've seen you bite off Milo and Max's heads for nothing. You shouldn't treat them like that, Sonny. They're very loyal to you and deserve some kind of respect for that."
"I'll treat them however the hell I want, they work for me." He said his voice raising a bit, his anger becoming apparent.
"So what you think that gives you the right to talk to them any kind of way and treat them like dirt. So what if they work for you, does that mean you own them. Is that how you see things that everyone around you belongs to you or was put here to bow down at your feet and do your bidding?"
"Pretty much, yeah." He replied humorously as he smirked and looked down at his desk.
"Well I got a newsflash for you Mr. Sonny Corinthos. You don't own me and if I wanted to be treated like crap I would have stayed home with my daddy. At least with him I didn't have to wonder whether he was going to be nice to me that day or try to murder me, because his hatred for me and murderous tendencies were a 24 hours 7 days a week thing."
"I'm not going to apologize to you, Claudia, for how I run my household and those in it."
"And I'm included in that?"
"You're my wife, and you have a place and it has boundaries. So as long as you know your place and stay within those boundaries we won't have a problem." Sonny stated and she rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"You know what I'm just gonna leave now before the scent of chauvinistic pig overwhelms me." She said as she stomped to the stairs and snatched up the gym bag she had placed there when she came down.
"Where you going?" He asked as he watched her, and bit at his fingernail.
"Probably to hell since I've been such a bad girl," She replied as she zipped up her jacket. She had no intentions of telling him where she was going she knew she didn't have to. Her routine was the same every morning and she knew he knew it. Sonny couldn't help but chuckle at her stubborn defiance.
"Well take a guard with you."
"I take two guards with me wherever I go, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson are never too far away." She said as she walked to the exit.
"Claudia," He called out to her fully expecting her to stop and listen, but all he got was the slamming of the front door. He sighed heavily as he closed his eyes briefly, then he called out again, "Milo!"
By the time she reached the Metro Court she was fully riled up from her argument with Sonny, it hadn't helped her disposition any when she noticed Milo was following her. The more she thought about the way Sonny had behaved towards her and Milo the madder she became. She moved to the desk and requested a boxing session in one of the Hotel's private gyms. Whenever she needed to blow off steam she found it easier to do when she was able to hit something or someone, so her Uncle Rudy signed her up for boxing lessons when she was a teenager, and she had kept it up over the years. Once the session was booked she turned to head for the elevators and nearly plowed over Carly.
"Whoa," Carly exclaimed.
"Sorry," Claudia threw out as she side stepped Carly and continued on her way.
"No problem but what are you doing here?" Carly asked and Claudia instantly stopped and twirled to face her.
"What? Why, are you kicking me out of your hotel again Carly?" Claudia asked in a very irritated tone.
"No," Carly replied as she looked at the woman before her in confusion. "I only asked because I know Sonny have a huge home gym with a personal trainer, so I was just wondering why you came all the way over here. That's all but now I'm sorry I asked, so never mind." Carly then turned to move to the desk.
"I'm sorry, Carly. I'm just having a crappy day." Claudia called out as she closed her eyes and took a deep cleansing breath to calm her frayed nerves.
"Wow, and it's just 9:30 in the morning. Let me guess you and Sonny had a fight?" Carly asked. Claudia simply nodded not bothering to ask Carly how she knew, she figured since Carly had been married to Sonny for so long she'd know better than anyone how frustrating the man could be. "Thought so, so what did you do leave your socks on the floor or moved a piece paper on his desk? Those things use to drive him nuts whenever I did them."
"No, actually I'm probably more anal about being clean and organized than he is. No, I'm just a bit upset to learn that in the world according to Sonny were all just puppets and toys that he can play with whenever and however he likes. Most importantly I'm his wife and I need to know my place." Carly laugh outright at the last part, remembering being told that by Sonny throughout their marriage.
"And I'm guessing you told him to go to hell,"
"Yep but not before he kissed my as…whoa" Claudia's words ended abruptly as she stumbled a bit feeling dizzy. Carly quickly shot her hand out and grasped Claudia's forearm to steady her.
"Are you ok?" Carly asked in what appeared to be genuine concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine I've just been under the weather for a few days, I think I caught some bug that's going around." Claudia stated as her head cleared and the dizzy spell ended.
"Oh yeah, have you had any other symptoms besides the dizzy spells, any vomiting or exhaustion?" Carly asked and Claudia nodded her head.
"Yeah you've had it too?" Claudia asked.
"Oh yeah," Carly said with a giggle. "I've had that bug a few times. It starts with the letter 'P' and it ends in about 9 months." Carly stated as Claudia looked at her with her brow bunched in confusion, and then her face morphed to a look of fright. Carly's smile widened at Claudia revelation about her words.
"No," Claudia said as she shook her head. "There's no way."
"Hello, you're married to Sonny Corinthos." Carly said and Claudia threw her a questioning look. "He could probably impregnate you with just a look."
"He hasn't and I'm not," Claudia said as she hugged herself.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I take birth control."
"Come on they didn't teach you in Sex Ed that the only sure way to not get pregnant is to abstain from having sex. I know for a fact that's an impossible task when you're married to Sonny."
"I can't be pregnant."
"Well is your period late?" Carly asked and the way Claudia's eyes widened a bit told her that was a yes. "Well there's only one way to find out for sure. I can tell you now that if you are Sonny's whole macho idea about you belonging to him is only gonna get worse." Carly said with a sympathetic smile. "Here," Carly reached over the desk and grabbed one of the hotel's business cards and a pen. She then scribbled something's on the card and then handed it to Claudia. "That's my OBGYN, if you'd like I'll give her a call right now, she's temping at Mercy until GH gets rebuilt. She's doing clinic duty there so you could just walk in, or I could call her to tell her to expect you." Claudia eyed Carly suspiciously. "Look she's discreet and there's the whole doctor client thing so she won't tell anyone, not even me. Not that I'd ask her too and I won't mention anything about it to anyone either. I swear. So do you want me to call?" Claudia nodded her head. "Ok."
"Thank you." Claudia said in a deflated tone as her shoulders slumped a bit.
"Judging by the disappointment on your face, I'm not sure if congratulations are in order."
"I can't be pregnant, I just can't be." Claudia said as she turned and walked to the exit.
She felt numb and sick to her stomach. She didn't know whether to laugh at the irony of her situation or to cry about how twist it actually was. She had tuned out the words of the woman standing in front of her, after she had said, "You're pregnant." So she just sat not having the energy or desire to do anything else at the moment.
"I've already prescribed some pre-natal vitamins which you can pick up from the nurse's station on your way out." Dr. Holmes said as she continued writing in the chart she held, her words got Claudia's attention and she shot her eyes up.
"No, I'm not keeping it. How soon could I set up an abortion?" The doctor stood stunned for a moment by the abruptness of her words.
"Well Ms. Anderson," The Doctor spoke softly calling Claudia by the fake name she had given. "When it's this early in gestation you can set up an appointment for an abortion as soon as you'd like."
"How about right now?"
"Well right now wouldn't be possibly because as I said you have to set up the appointment and then we'd check for availability. I know that my calendar will be empty next Thursday if you can wait until then." Claudia nodded her head.
"I just need to get this baby out of me as soon as possible."
"I understand, well I'll set the appointment myself for next Thursday and for now you're free to go." Dr Holmes said and then threw Claudia a sympathetic smile before leaving the examining room. Claudia hopped from the table she had been examined on and exited the room in hast. She didn't want to run the risk of someone who knew her seeing her she had even driven around for nearly two hours until she gave Milo the slip. Unbeknownst to her someone had seen her as she rushed by the Nurses station, ignoring the nurse who was calling after her.
"Ms. Anderson!" The nurse called out one last time to the woman's retreating back.
"Excuse me, that woman you're calling that's my sister-in-law Claudia Zacchara-Conrinthos." Rick said as the nurse's face paled a bit, it was apparent she knew of one or both families and their reputations.
"Oh, she said her name was Ms. Claudia Anderson, we don't ask to see I.D.s, so I didn't know." She replied apologetically.
"It's ok apparently she was looking for some discretion. There's nothing wrong with her is there? My brother Sonny Corinthos just married Claudia I'm sure he'd want to know if there was anything wrong with her." Rick said throwing around the Corinthos name since it seemed to frighten the woman, which he hoped would gain him some information.
"Oh no sir nothing bad, she just forgot to get her prescription before she left." The nurse replied.
"Oh, well I was just heading over to visit my brother so I can make sure she gets them, unless it's not allowed."
"Well they're not any narcotics just pre-natal vitamins," She said and Rick stood stunned for a moment before he chuckled to himself. "So I don't see the harm, if you don't mind."
"Oh no," He said with a broad smile. "I don't mind at all."
He rushed to the docks after he had gotten the frantic call, a fear gripped him which didn't subside until he saw her seating on the bench near the pier. "Claudia?" He called out to her and she turned to him and leaped from the bench and rushed into his open arms.
"Johnny," She instantly crumbled against him as she sobbed against his chest.
"Shh, it's ok I got you, I got you." He tried to console her as he held her tightly and rocked her. He moved them back to the bench, where he sat for nearly half an hour just holding her and waiting for her to calm down. When her sobs turned to sniffles, and then to slight hiccups he finally spoke to her again. "You want to tell me what happened, did Sonny hurt you?" He asked the very thought making him angry and plotting revenge. She simply shook her head.
"No but he should." She said in a low voice.
"I don't understand tell me what happened?"
"John, I'm pregnant." She said and he looked as if someone had knocked the wind out of him, as he slouched back against the bench and stared at his sister, speechless. "How could God do that? How could he give me Sonny's child after what I did to Michael?"
"Come on Claudia you know what happened to Michael wasn't your fault you didn't know he would be there." John tried to reason with her.
"It was my actions that put him where he is, whether I knew he would be there or not, some of the blame lies with me, and now I'm being punished." She said as her sobs hit her anew, and John enveloped her in his arms again. "It's ok we'll figure it out. What are you planning on telling Sonny?" She lifted her head and looked at him as if he were as insane as she thought their father to be.
"Nothing, I'm not keeping it so Sonny never has to know, and I'll make sure to be more careful in the future."
"Claudia, I know you've always said you didn't want to have children, but…"
"But nothing John, do you really expect me to bring a child into our world, into the mob world?" John couldn't say anything, he honestly couldn't say which would be the lesser of two evils, bringing a child into a hellish world he and Claudia had been raised in, or aborting it.
"I'm just saying, I know how much what happened to Michael has affected you, and you have no biological or emotional ties to him. So do you think you could handle 'killing' your own child?" It was a question she had asked herself over and over again since learning she was pregnant, but she wouldn't allow her mind to dwell on it long enough to formulate an answer, too afraid that the answer would cause her to keep the baby.
"I can't have this baby John, and Sonny can never know about it. It's bad enough that Carly knows."
"Wait Carly knows?" John asked.
"Yeah, I had a dizzy spell in front of her this morning and she put two and two together, she even set up an appointment with her doctor so I would know for sure if I was pregnant."
"Well how long do you expect her to wait before she runs and tells Sonny?"
"She won't,"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because she knows about Michael, that I was the one who placed the hit." John stared at her in disbelief. "She doesn't blame me, because she was married to Sonny so long she actually understands the mob life a little bit, that sometimes it's kill or be killed, if they hit you, you hit back harder. Funny thing is the only person she really blames for what happened to Michael is the person who's been torturing me over it, Kate Howard. Carly told me that I shouldn't tell Sonny and she even came over and helped me look for Jerry's DVDs, but we didn't find any. So I honestly don't think she would say anything to Sonny about this if I asked her not to."
"Wow," John said letting everything sink in a moment, and then he spoke again. "So when do you plan on, you know?"
"Next Thursday, will you go with me?" She asked with tear filled pleading eyes.
"Of course I will, I wouldn't let you go through that alone." John said as he pulled her back into his embrace and kissed her temple. "Are you ok to go back to Sonny's if not we can get a room at the Metro Court?"
"No, I want to go home, to Sonny's. I don't want to rile his suspicions at all."
"OK, then come on I'll take you by Kelly's grab some lunch and then take you home." He said as he stood and pulled her up with him.
"Thank you," She said with a smile.
"Hey I think it's about time I look out for you the way you always look out for me. Come on," He pulled her into a hug as they left the docks.
"Thank you for seeing me Sonny," Rick said as Max showed him into the room where Sonny sat at his desk.
"It better be good Rick, because I'm not in the mood to play games with you." Sonny said as he threw his brother a warning glance.
"Oh it's something I think you'll want to hear," Rick said as he pulled out two Cuban Cigars from the left inside packet of his blazer, tossing one the table for Sonny, who just eyes it but made no attempt to pick it up. "I just came to celebrate with you. I wanted to be the first to congratulate you."
"What the hell are you talking about Rick?" Sonny demanded and Rick pulled and bottle of pre-natal vitamins from his trench coat and tossed them on the desk next to the cigars.
"You're gonna be a daddy…again," Rick said with a cunning smile. "I'll admit for a split second I thought maybe it was mine, but the nurse was kind enough to indulge that Claudia is only about 3 weeks along. Seeing that I haven't been with her in over two months because you've got her on lock down now, and there's the fact that during our many trysts I always came prepared, there's no way it's mine. So, congratulations!" Rick exclaimed with a huge grin. Sonny eyed Rick and then the bottle atop his desk. He reached out and picked up the bottle and read the name, and then rolled his eyes.
"You stole," He re-read the name aloud. "Ms. Claudia Anderson's vitamins and in your twisted mind that means 'my' wife's pregnant?"
"No the fact that I saw Claudia rushing out of Mercy Clinic not even an two hours ago, and the nurse there was trying to catch her to give her pre-natal vitamins. When I told the nurse who Claudia really was and who she was married to well she disclosed everything to me." Rick said just as Claudia and John entered the room. "But don't take my word for it." Rick said beaming as he moved to the exited. He paused and leaned in and gave Claudia a kiss on the cheek as she watched him in confusion and curiosity. "Congratulations." He said with a cheeky smile and then left the room, leaving Sonny, Claudia, and John.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" Sonny asked as he stood and set the bottle of vitamins on the desk and slid it towards her. He then leaned his hands against the desk and stared at her, awaiting her reply. Claudia stood frozen looking like a deer caught in headlights as she looked from the bottle and then to Sonny.
