Corinthos Household-

Sonny was working up a storm in his kitchen, also known as his safe haven. If there was one room in his entire house that he knew was his and his alone, it was the kitchen. After all, Carly couldn't do anything as far as cooking went to save her life unless it was the simplest thing, like throwing a pizza in the oven or putting something in a microwave, and even then she somehow managed to screw it up from time to time. Michael was too young to cook anything, although he would occasionally put something in the microwave as well, or the toaster, or pour himself a bowl of cereal. And Damian… if there was anyone who came close to matching Sonny's culinary skills in his family, it was his oldest child, but regardless, Damian wasn't a hundredth of the cook that Sonny was, he just knew how to boil water, which still put him leaps and bounds above Carly and her aptitude for the craft. Maybe, one day he would teach the boys how to do the things that he could do. After all, Sonny wasn't going to be around forever, no matter how much he thought he was going to be around. Mortality was a fact of life that even Sonny Corinthos had to respect, had to fear, and Sonny's mortality certainly wasn't as secure as other people, nor was the mortality of his family.

Carly, still dressed in her nightgown, walked into the kitchen, feeling her bare feet on the cold tile, the cloth of her nightgown sweeping behind her like the train of her wedding dress. A beautiful wedding dress, like she had always dreamed of having when she was a little girl. When she was young she would dream about having everything that she would have ever hoped for, but that was the dream that everyone had. Nobody expected to have that dream come true, and almost nobody ever thought that Caroline Benson would have a chance at making herself into something, not with all the hell that she had gone through in her life. She was at the bottom of the gutter, financially, and everyone figured that it was where she would end up staying. How Carly relished the idea of having all that she could have ever hoped for, everything that she didn't have once upon a time. A family that loved her, more money than she knew what to do with, no matter how much she tried to spend it. For her, life was good. For the most part, at least. There was still something that she didn't have: a father. A real father. Not the adopted one that had 'raised' her, at least in the technical sense of the word. Not a father-in-law, like Mike, who loved her as much as a father could, but her honest-to-God dad, the one who gave her the physical traits that obviously didn't come from her mother.

Although it was still on her mind, Carly had given up on the quest to find her father. She had accepted the fact that she would have to take what she had, after all, it was more than enough. More than most people had, that was for certain. Carly took a strong whiff and let out a pleasurable sound. "It smells like you're making something wonderful, Sonny."

"Do I ever make anything else?"

Carly grinned, "Easy there, Mr. Corinthos, I wouldn't want to be pushed out of the kitchen by your ego. Yes, Sonny, you're a wonderful cook, the best that I've ever seen, I bow to your superiority." Carly quickly curtsied in front of her husband, gripping the edges of her nightgown with her hands as she lowered her body. "There, are you happy?"

"Merely content," Sonny retorted, turning his attentions back to the food that he was cooking. "I didn't have anything that was taking up my time today, so I wanted to make sure that Michael got a good breakfast before he went off to school. It's the most important meal of the day, you know." He'd seen the commercials, complete with dancing fruits and eggs.

"Leticia could have made him something, and if not there's always cereal."

Sonny shook his head, "Michael eats too much cereal, Carly. That's not a real breakfast, that's the breakfast that neglectful parents give their children because they don't put them in front of everything else. They don't find a way to cook breakfast for the most important things in their life. Sometimes it can't be helped, I know that, I understand that, but I refuse to be one of those parents that lets his children ingest cereal time and time again… I want Michael to know that he can look forward to having me make him pancakes, bacon and eggs as often as I can."

"Sonny," Carly walked behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, feeling the heat that radiated from the skillet that was barely a foot away from her fingers. The hot oil from cooking the bacon popped onto her index finger, causing a slight burning sensation that was gone a second later. "Michael knows that you love him, but he also knows that you have a lot of things that you need to take care of. You've always told him that, no matter what, no matter how busy you are, you'll always love him, and he knows that."

"I just want to show it to him," Sonny flipped the bacon over with the spatula. Two pieces, because he couldn't have the boy eating too much bacon, it was good, but it wasn't exactly good for him, health wise. "You know what it's like, Carly. To wake up as a young child and not see your parents there, to know that they're probably too busy sleeping off their night of sheer drunkenness. To not hear those simple little words that made the world seem a lot less scary, to not hear them tell you that they loved you before you went to school…"

"You let Michael know that you love him every day. Even when you're on a trip, you make sure to call every morning before he goes to school. Sonny, you might not be perfect, but you're a damned good father, everyone knows it."

"I guess I just want to keep my reputation then."

Carly finally let go of Sonny when she heard another pair of feet walking towards them. Turning around, she saw that it was the boy in question. She quickly put on a smile that wasn't nearly as artificial as it could have been. After all, there was nothing wrong, and Michael was the center of her world, along with his little brother. "Hey there, Mr. Man. Look at you, all dressed up and ready for the day."

"I wear the same thing to school every day, mommy," Michael pointed out. His school had the uniform mandate. At first it was almost kind of cool, but it quickly became stupid, especially when he went on school trips and saw the other kids that were able to wear whatever they wanted. But, Michael understood that his parents put him in the private school both for his own protection and because it was one of the best places to get an education. They wanted him to have a future, so that he could try and aim for something big like his brother. Michael wanted that, too. If he wanted to be a doctor was something that he hadn't decided yet, but he knew he wanted to go to school and get an education.

"You're still the most handsome boy in the whole school when you wear that uniform."

"You're just saying that."

"Hey, give me a little credit here. I'm your mother, I think I'm entitled to certain gushing rights…" Carly took his hand, "Now come on, your daddy is making you a big breakfast so you don't have to worry about being hungry right before lunch. Sit at the table, I'll get you a glass of orange juice."

"Morning, daddy," Michael called out to Sonny as he sat in the chair.

"Hey, buddy. You know, your mom's right, you look like a million bucks in that uniform…"

"Maybe I'll start wearing suits like you. You always look like you're dressed nice."

"I think you're a little too young to be dressed like me, Mike," Sonny replied as he put the bacon on the plate next to the pancakes, reaching over and cracking an egg in a bowl and quickly scrambling it up. When it was purely yellow, Sonny poured the contents into the skillet. "Your breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."

Michael looked around at his parents, smiling at his mother as she placed the glass of orange juice onto the table, right by his side. To appease her, Michael quickly took as large a gulp as he could before placing the cup right back on the table. Carly continued to look at him, as if she was transfixed by his presence. In a way it was comforting, but in another way it was somewhat scary. There wasn't anything wrong, was there? They weren't putting on an act to make him think that everything was okay when there was really something that was wrong… they'd done it before, but he let them know that he wasn't a little kid anymore, he could deal with the problems that they were facing, he didn't need to be shielded. Granted, they didn't really believe him, but that didn't make his statement any less true.

The boy knew that he was witnessing something rare and special, a moment where he had his parents alone, completely to himself. Once upon a time it was something that he would always covet. He loved Morgan dearly, but the baby was still too small to do anything but distract the two of them from him. It wasn't necessarily jealously, it was just more of an inconvenience. But now, with Damian, Michael had another member of the household who was just as important to him as anyone else. And he wanted his big brother there. It wasn't possible, but that didn't stop him from wanting it.

"All right, Michael," Sonny had finished cooking the breakfast and put the food on the table right next to him, "dig in, and make sure you tell me how it tastes, because if I did something that you don't like I want to make sure that I never do it again."

"Daddy, you're the best cook in the world, why would you make something that I didn't like?"

"It could happen, Mike, just tell me. Don't be afraid. You won't hurt my feelings, I promise."

Michael nodded as he stuck the fork into the pancake, tearing at it until there was a sizable chunk of the fluffy object to enter his mouth. Michael tasted nothing wrong with the pancake, if anything, it was one of the best things that he had ever tasted in his life. "This is great!"

"I feel neglected," Carly muttered.

Sonny chuckled and walked over to the microwave. "Do you really think that I would just make breakfast for Michael and not for you?" He popped open the cover and pulled out a similarly cooked meal, although Carly liked her eggs over easy. "I made your food first, because I wanted to make sure that Michael got his right when it was ready, plus, I didn't know when you were going to wake up, so I put it in the microwave to make sure it stayed warm."

"I'm getting old food?"

"Carly… it's been in there for ten minutes, tops. I know you, you'll eat just about anything as long as it isn't ice cold, and sometimes even if it is."

Carly threw him a mockingly dirty look. But, she knew that there was truth to what he was telling her. She really would eat just about anything, especially if it was Sonny who did the cooking. "I'm only eating this because I don't want to see you cry if I don't."

"I appreciate the attention to my feelings…"

"Daddy?" Michael interjected into his parents' conversation, because he had something that he felt necessary to say, or at least ask. "Can I go see Damian at work later today, after school?"

Sonny and Carly both looked over to the boy, but it was Sonny who spoke, "Buddy, he's going to be home in a few days, and then he'll be here for most of the week until he goes back. I'm sure it can wait…"

"All right…"

Carly reached over and touched his hand, "What did you want to see him about, sweetie? Did you just want to tell him hello?"

Michael shook his head, "Yesterday, before I went to school, I saw him in his room, it seemed like he was dealing with something. He wasn't smiling, at least not the same way that he usually smiles. I just wanted to try and see if I could do something, see if there was a way to know if he was all right. You don't know anything about it, do you?"

"I don't, no," Carly may not have hated the boy anymore but she didn't really get involved in his life, either. When it was necessary, she would step in, but she wanted to give him the space that he probably requested, and she didn't mind for one minute being the type of person who was only there for her stepson when he needed it. At least she was there sometimes.

"I'm sure he's just dealing with a lot of things, Mike," Sonny spoke in that tone of voice that seemed to make it appear like he knew what he was talking about, even if he didn't. That confident tone that filled people with assurance. "Your brother's a lot like your Uncle Jason, they want to stop everyone from feeling bad about themselves, they want to stop people from being hurt, so they'll go out of their way to make sure that, no matter what, the people who need them know that they have someone there for them when they need it."

"But what happens when they need someone to help them with their problems?" Michael asked. "If they're helping everyone else, who do they go to for help?"

"The people that love them," Carly replied. "Sweetie, if he's going through something and he knows that he needs help he's going to ask someone that he loves. He has you, he has the rest of his family, he has Dillon, and he has Maxie. Trust me, if there's something that's bothering your brother, he's going to find a way to deal with it. Look at who his father is… the most stubborn man alive."

"I resent that comment. I checked on the internet, I'm only the sixth most stubborn man alive."

"Then you must have done something to go down in the ratings, because last time I checked you were number one." Carly snickered, but shifted back to her serious, motherly tone, "Honey, you don't need to see him, I'm sure he's fine."

Michael was silent, he wanted to believe his parents, he really did, but the boy wasn't so sure that he could. After all, the way that he had seen his brother look… it was such a painful look.