She stood at the top of the steps. He laid at the bottom of the step, dead. He was finally dead, he would never hurt her again. Then she realized that she had killed him. What if she faced trial? What would happen to Johnny? Sonny would go crazy. How could one of her dreams come true and turn out to be a nightmare? With shaky legs, she ran to her room and grabbed her cell phone.

"Answer, dammit." She said as the phone kept ringing.

"Claudia are you okay?! What happened? Do you need me?"

"I always need you." She said in her strongest voice, not being able to answer the rest of his questions.

"I'll be there in a second. Love you." He hung up the phone as she tried to rock herself back and forth. She didn't know what was going to happen and for the first time in a long time she was scared.

*********

It had to be around twenty minutes later when finally found his way into the house where the guards couldn't catch him. The first thing he noticed was Anthony's dead body at the bottom of the steps, he was proud of his girl. She had fought him off. He made his way up to her room, she looked shattered. He reached out to her, only to have her flinch with the contact.

"Claudia? Baby, can you tell me what happened?" Silence. She wouldn't say a word. All he knew was that they had to get out of here before the guards came and found Anthony's dead body.

He tried to hold her, but again she shied away from his touch. He didn't know what to do. She had just gotten her revenge for all the terrible things that man had done to her and she felt guilty, he saw it on her face.

"Claudia, I'm going to go wake Johnny up and have him pack what he wants to and than I'm going to sit him in my car and come back for you, okay?" She gave him a glimmer of hope when she nodded her head. He kissed her cheek and ran to her little brother's room. The small boy was sleeping perfectly and Sonny felt bad about waking him.

"Johnny, wake up." He shook the boy a bit. Johnny finally stirred awake.

"Sonny…..? What's going on?" He sat up and wiped some sleep from his eyes.

"I'm getting you and your sister out of here. I need you to pack two bags. One of your clothes and another of your toys. I'm going to stand at your door and call a friend, okay?"

"Yes, I'll get to it." Johnny got out of his bed and grabbed to bags from his closet and started packing. Sonny found Jason's number on his contacts list and called it.

"What the hell? Sonny you know it's midnight, right?"

"Come on, it isn't a school night so you've been up. Jase, I need your help."

"If it has anything to do with your girlfriend, I can't do it."

"Jase, her father tried to kill her tonight. She's in shock, she won't even talk to me. I need a place for us to crash for one night, tops. We're going back to Besonhurst after that."

"Fine, under one condition. I get to come visit whenever I want."

"That would be a given anyway. So just be ready for us in thirty or so minutes."

"Gotcha."

"Thanks man."

"No, problem. See you in a bit." The dial tone sounded and Johnny pulled on his pant leg, showing him both bags packed and ready.

"Good boy. Come one lets get you to the car." Sonny led him down the other set of stairs and through the hole in the gate, finally they made it to the car. Sonny put all of Johnny's stuff in the trunk and got Johnny settled in the backseat, where he was falling back asleep. Sonny relocked the car and went back toward the house.

Claudia was in the same place when he walked back to her room. She looked so damaged. He grabbed a bag from her closet and started packing her things for her. He felt her eyes following him, but he kept packing. Soon, everything she needed was packed up.

"Can you walk or do you need me to carry you?" She didn't answer. He placed the bag on his arm and scooped her up in his arms. He didn't bother going to the different staircase, because she knew what had happened. When they passed the body, she nuzzled her face into his neck. He felt like he was going to cry. She was close to having everything she wanted and now this happened. They got to the car and he put her in the passenger's seat. She turned her head and smiled as she saw Johnny sleeping.

"Claudia, we're going to Jason's for the night. Then tomorrow, we're going to Besonhurst." She looked hurt by this statement. "Do you not wanna go to Besonhurst?" She shook her head. "I guess we could get a house in the burbs of PC. What do you think?" She stopped communicating and just rested her head in her hands. He put the car in drive and drove to the Quatermaine mansion, where Jason was waiting. He opened the trunk and got all the bags, while Sonny went to the backseat and picked Johnny up. Both boys waited for Claudia, finally she got out of the car and followed them.

"I'll take you to one of the bigger bedrooms, it has two beds." Jason told them. They tried to be as quiet as possible so that they didn't disturb the others. Jason set down the bags and Sonny tucked Johnny under the covers. Claudia was just standing there. Jason was even becoming worried.

"Sonny, come out side with me for a sec. I've got a few questions." Jason asked.

"Sure. Are you okay with that?" He asked Claudia, who did nothing. "I'll be right back." He kissed the top of her head, before leaving. Claudia went and sat on the bed, tracing the outline of the comforter.

*********

"What happened to her man?" Jason asked when they got an appropriate amount of space away from the room.

"Her father has been abusing her, her entire life." He paused as he examined the look on Jason's face. "Today was the day he was going to kill her, that's why we were aren't school. I couldn't let her last day to be a school day. When she got home, he was going to take her to the basement and beat her to death. Well she fought back and Anthony fell down the stairs. She's been like that ever since. What should I do Jase? I've never seen her this fragile." Jason gave him a manly hug, trying to give unwanted comfort.

"We have a psychologist on call, I'll call her if you want."

"She's on call?"

"With the Quatermaines you never know. Should I call?"

"I don't want to cost you guys anymore money."

"Will you stop worrying about it. I'll call, you just tell Claudia and get her to this room." Jason pointed to the room he was standing beside of, Sonny nodded.

*********

He sat down next to her, pulling the hair out of her face.

"Jason is calling a psychologist to come help you. I know you don't like the idea, but I need you to be okay." He explained. Jason suddenly walked through the door, signaling Claudia to come with him. They all walked slowly to the room. Sonny rubbed Claudia's back in comfort before sending her into the room, alone.

"Hi Claudia, I'm Dr. Winters. But you can just call me Lainey. Now Jason told me you were abused. Can you tell me your story?" Claudia looked up at the woman, she saw trust in her eyes and just started to talk the story no one knew fully.

"I was four when my dad first hit me. It's one of those things you don't forget. My mother would tell him to stop and he would that day, but the next day would be the same. Soon my mother disappeared and the beatings started to happen. When Maria had Johnny they got worse and worse-"

"Do you blame Johnny for your beatings?"

"No, never. I found that my father's temper was hard. Today was the day he was going to kill me, but we ended up fighting near the stairs and he fell down the stairs." Lainey nodded.

"Do you feel guilty?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know. He's been the only thing in my life that's constant other than the beatings."

"Well believe me, Claudia, it looks like that boy out there sure wants to be your constant, if you let him. You can't shut him out like you did tonight. He needs you just as much as you need him."

"You're right, thank you, Dr. Winters."

"Anytime."

Both women walked out of the room. Claudia walked into the room her family was sharing. Sonny stood up and walked over to her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired. Jason thank you so much for letting us crash here."

"No problem. Look I know I wasn't very nice to you, but I hope that we can become friends."

"We most defiantly can. You're my boyfriend's best friend. I think we need to at least tolerate each other." She joked, then noticed the laptop sitting on the bed. "What's this?" Sonny ran in front of her.

"Nothing, nothing." She maneuvered around him and looked at the screen. It was a house in the suburbs of Port Charles. It was perfect for them.

"Are you thinking of getting this for us?" Sonny pulled out a pair of keys.

"Not thinking. I did buy it for us." She jumped into his open arms, trying not to wake Johnny or Jason's family in the process.

"It's perfect. I love you." She kissed him.

"Mhmm, I love you too."

"Umm, I think I'm gonna get out of here." Jason spoke up realizing this was getting a little uncomfortable. Claudia blushed.

"Sorry Jason, night."

"Good, night."

***************

Claudia cuddled up next to Sonny in bed, smiling.

"It's all over, Superman."

"It's all over and I finally have my Cinderella."

"I love you, Sonny so much. More than anything in this world. You and Johnny are all that matter to me."

"And you and Johnny are the only family I need. Thank God, I found you."

3 Years Later:

They were living in their house, happy and content. Claudia was attending college online. Not that she'd need a degree, the mob lifestyle was fitting them very well. Claudia had not been charged in anything that had to do with Anthony's death, and they put that whole situation behind them. Johnny was doing great in school and was loving the fact that Claudia didn't walk around with a bunch of makeup on her face. Everything was going perfectly and they were a happy family.

I would like to send a special shout to Cherry(Mob Princess), because this story would probably not be on here if not for her. With her support was this story possible. So thank you, Cherry! I would also like to say that if any of you are interested there is a sequel to this. Please tell me in your review if you would be interested. Thank you for R&Ring!!!