Port Charles Hotel-

So distracted by his own problems was John Durant that he didn't even bother to notice that Sonny Corinthos's best friend had been checked into the same hotel, in a room that was relatively close to his own. No, the moment he found out that there was a chance that he could have had a daughter the hunt for information took precedence. And now, to find out that it was Carly Corinthos… John could not believe that his own daughter would be with someone that was so dangerous. Of course, John understood why she did it on some base level. In the years that he had been bringing down people like Sonny there was always, always a woman that was attached to the person, but she was little more than a figurehead. A beautiful young woman that was used simply to show that the person who was in charge could have whatever he wanted. Sometimes they would have children, like Carly and Sonny did, other times they wouldn't. But they were treated like nothing more than property, like a pet to be used whenever the person in question wanted it. John didn't want that for his daughter, and he didn't want his grandsons to be involved with such a horrible person.

The big question that had kept John up all night was how he was going to go about telling Carly about their connection to one another. How would he be able to make his daughter understand? How was he going to approach it? Would he just go up and say that he was her father? Why would she believe him? It didn't matter to John, not really. He needed Carly to know the truth.

One of the most fascinating things for John was the way that he was reacting. His whole life he had never had a child before, had never even wanted one, but now that he knew that he had one he wanted to become a part of her life… the problem was finding a way for Carly to accept him for who he was, which was probably going to be impossible given the fact that she was connected to Sonny.

It was at that moment that John realized that the easiest chance he had at finding a relationship with his daughter and his grandchildren was if he managed to take Sonny and Jason down. The only problem was that now he needed to act as quickly as possible. The longer he stayed the less likely he was to endear himself to anyone, especially his family. While he liked to play things by the book as much as possible, bending rules only when it was necessary, and frequently it was, John realized that there was something that needed to be done. He was going to need help, and he had a good idea as to who he was going to get help from.

The man walked out of his room and into the main room of the hotel suite, looking on the counter for his little black book, which did not have ex-girlfriends as most people would believe, but had contacts that he could use whenever he wanted. People owed John Durant favors, and he always understood that sometimes it was just as important to put a person away as it was to gain an ally, or at least someone that they could summon on retainer. John needed someone crafty, someone who could do what was necessary to do, someone who he could bully into doing the things he wanted done without much argument. And he had just the person. John opened the book, scanning for the name. The person wasn't easy to get in touch with for most people, but John wasn't most people, he was one of the most powerful attorneys in the country, the world even. He knew how to get what he wanted.

His aged hand picked up the phone and he dialed the number before he put the receiver to his ear. The phone rang a few times before someone picked up on the other end. "It's John… I need you to come to Port Charles New York as soon as possible. No, I don't care what else you've got on your plate, I need you here, and if you don't come then you know what I can do… yeah, I thought you would see it my way. Call me before you get into town so I can meet you."

The phone call ended and John placed the phone back, a smile on his face. When he was taking down some of the big guns, it only made sense to hire the best possible people that he had available to him. Now, though, it wasn't just business. No, it had become a matter that was far more personal than anything he could have ever thought of. He looked out the window, "Don't worry, Carly, I'm going to find a way to free you and your children from that man. I promise. Dad's going to find a way."

Lansing Home-

Ric sometimes enjoyed being alone in the house, but, now that he had Elizabeth back in his life it seemed more like a punishment than anything else. Usually, when he did have his time alone it was spent brooding about the many mistakes that he had made in his life, and it really was no different at that particular moment. As it tended to go, he was worrying about his relationship with Sonny. It was still on such thin ice that there was so much that could have gone wrong, just like there was so much that could have gone right. There could have been a time when the two of them would speak with one another like actual brothers. None of the taunting that went on between them. Usually, when they referred to one another as big brother and little brother it was to just dig a dagger into the other person's back. Ric didn't understand why they did it, but, in his defense, it was usually Sonny who ended up initiating the first round of their longstanding brawls.

He didn't have to be inside the office for a few hours, which gave him time to relax and gain his bearings. For once he wasn't thinking about the ways that he had failed Sonny, but rather how he was going to prove himself to Sonny, how he was going to help his brother do something that he wanted. Ric wanted Durant gone just as much as Sonny, if not more. Sonny had dealt with people like Durant before, Ric was on that list, as horrible as it was to admit. Ric, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about people threatening his position of power in Port Charles. And he didn't like it. Before, he was the assistant District Attorney to Scott Baldwin, but he did nothing to take Baldwin out of office until the end, until he found out just how corrupt Scott truly was. He would have been perfectly content with the position that Scott gave him, until Scott chose to threaten Ric's family, and when that happened there was no way that Ric was going to let the threats stand. He wasn't going to let someone destroy the future of one of his family members, he would not stand for it. Despite all the negativity that may have existed between him and his estranged maternal family, Ric knew that they were still family, they still shared blood. Besides, it wasn't just anyone who Scott was trying to bring down, it was Damian, the peacemaker.

There was a knock on Ric's door, which was surprising. He wasn't expecting anyone, and most people knew that Elizabeth was already at work, which meant that they wouldn't show up at his door looking for her, they would just look at Kelly's, which was where they usually looked anyway, given all of the time that she spent working there. The knocking continued as Ric walked over to the door and opened it up. "Sonny…"

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure, of course." Ric held the door open for his big brother, who walked into the living room before Ric shut the door behind them. He thought about asking if Jason was also coming, but, since it was Ric, the odds of Jason being involved were slim to none. If there was one huge obstacle that Ric would need to overcome, it was Jason. Jason was more Sonny's brother than Ric had ever been, quite possibly more Sonny's brother than Ric could ever hope to be. As much as he hated to admit it, the truth was right there.

Ric watched as Sonny paced around his living room like some caged animal. Before it would have been pleasant to see Sonny squirm like that, but Ric was no longer that person, he wanted to help his family, not make them suffer. So, help was what he was going to offer, but he needed to know what was going on first. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?"

"Your wife here?"

Ric shook his head, "Elizabeth already left for work, it's just the two of us. I don't see why you would care, though. Even if it was the two of us, I'm not expecting you to put any of the confidence into me that you put in some of the other people that are around you."

"Are we going to get into this right now?" Sonny asked. "I really don't want to get into yet another argument with you about something that doesn't really matter to me anymore. I need your help, Ric, you know that. You know that I asked you for help even though I don't really want to ask anyone for help, especially you."

"I feel special."

"Look, you're the one who was telling me how much you wanted to start up a relationship with me. I'm putting my trust in you, if you blow this I swear to God I will never be able to think of you as little more than my disowned little brother, no matter what my son tells me, no matter how hard he lobbies for me to give you another chance… that's it. If you botch this up, then it's over. You only get one shot with me."

"I'm aware of that."

"Good…"

"But I need to know why you're here regardless." Ric wanted to help Sonny, he really did. Not only because he wanted that relationship with his brother that had seemed forever denied to him, but because he could see that Sonny needed help, which was something that Sonny had never shown him before. It scared Ric on some level.

"I need to know if you've found any way of getting John Durant out of our hair…"

"It's not as easy as we want it to be, Sonny."

"So you're telling me that you haven't found anything that you can use against him?"

"Not yet… he hasn't even been pestering any of us lately. It seems like he's distracted by something else. I went through the whole day yesterday without seeing him one time. It was like a delayed Christmas present."

"He could just be planning something."

"I suppose, but you shouldn't think about things like that, Sonny. You need your 'A' game if you want to try and get through this unscathed. Even when I was at my worst, when I wanted to do everything within my power to take you down, I'm not even half the person that Durant can be. He's ruthless. He's good. He's better than me."

"Then you need to find some way to be better than him. Maybe Justus can…"

"Let me try and do this on my own before you send in Justus, all right?" Ric requested. He had nothing against Justus, well, he might have, but it was entirely… okay, so it wasn't professional so much as personal. Justus was the attorney that Sonny would always turn to, instead of him. Justus was Sonny's crux, and Ric was his brother. "I might not be able to show you anything, but that doesn't mean that I'm not looking."

"He's really good, isn't he?"

"He must be, if you're going to admit something like that. You usually don't admit anything about a person being good unless you're really nervous. And you hate being nervous."

"You going to take another potshot at me?"

"No, I'm not."

"Good…"

"You know, Sonny, no matter what we've been through in the past, I like to think that we have both changed in a lot of ways. Not just me, but you, too. You're able to look at me without having so much hate in your eyes, and I can do the same thing. I care about what happens to you, I care about your family… you can believe it if you want to, or you can just say that I'm saying those things to get in your good graces, but the only one of us who knows for sure one way or the other is me…"

"I believe you." Sonny said softly. "And, even though I wasn't at your wedding, even though I've never really said anything to you about it, I really do hope that you and Elizabeth are able to make this marriage work out. I can tell how much you've changed, Ric, even though sometimes I might not want to admit it because it means that I'm, at least in some way, forgiving you for the things that you've done to my family in the past, but it's true."

"Thank you, Sonny. That means a lot to me."

"Just don't expect a hug, all right?"

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"I just wanted to see how you were doing on your end, since you don't have anything, I guess I should go…" Sonny turned and started walking towards the door.

"Wait, Sonny," Ric called out to his brother, "You don't have to leave so soon if you don't want to. Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Coffee?"

"Its Corinthos-Morgan brand coffee," Ric replied with a wry smile. Once upon a time he would have never fathomed having that particular brand of coffee in his house, but, as painful as it had been to admit it once upon a time, it was really good coffee, and one of the few things that his brother did that wasn't laced with some sort of sinister back story.

"And what would we do during this cup of coffee?"

"Talk about ways to bring John Durant down? Or, I could ask you how you managed to make your second marriage to Carly work. After all, you're my big brother, I'm supposed to look to you for advice, aren't I?"

Sonny snickered, "All right, Ric. Coffee sounds fine."

Ric nodded. "Thank you, Sonny." Sonny may not have realized just how much taking the invitation for coffee meant to Ric, but Ric understood it well. The bridge that was broken, the one that made it impossible to cross, was slowly mending, and while he tried to not let himself get too involved in the possibilities, he could see that things were slowly getting better, and he was thankful for that.