June 13, 2006

Whatever Happened to Baby Ricky?

"You don't have to tell me what happened Alexis."

Brooke Lynn lies back down and closes her eyes almost forgetting where the story begins and where it ends. She recalled bits and pieces. Some parts caused Brooke to awaken in the middle of the night wondering if she'd ever see her mother again. Other parts merely made her toss and turn until she felt Alexis' hand placed softly on her forehead.

"Are you ok?" Ric questioned Alexis gripping tight onto the counter at Kelly's after venting to Bobbie. She quickly turned around to Ric and tried to flash a smile back on her face.

"I'm ok. Thanks for asking." Alexis tried to reassure him, but he knew better.

"You really shouldn't confront Sonny by yourself on this. Lorenzo, though I hate his guts right now…"

"Can we not argue about Lorenzo at the moment, Ric? The doctor said no stress. This is already a high-risk pregnancy. Keep that in mind."

Ric shakes his head a bit unnerved. "I love it how you throw Ricky in there whenever I bring up Lorenzo…"

"Because you're always bringing up Lorenzo."

Bobbie comes back to the counter and interjects. "Hey. People. Can't we all just get along?"

Ric furrows his brow and looks at the both of them. "Barely. We have some issues to discuss before you talk to Sonny, Alexis."

Alexis yanked her cell phone from her purse and headed towards the door. "I'm leaving Ric. I have phone calls to make. Meeting at 6? Bye."

Alexis rushed for the door leaving Ric at a loss. He looked back at Bobbie waiting for her admonishments.

"Ric, don't stress Alexis out." She said to him with a stiff finger.

Lorenzo walked in the door of Kelly's and stopped at the front with a grin having spotted Ric obviously frazzled.

Ric returns the smile with a false sincerity. "Hey Lo. Here for the meeting?"

Lorenzo looks around Kelly's and approaches Ric. "Uh. Yes and no. My son was supposed to meet me here for lunch. But I was stood up. He had some gig with Kristina. The Q's bought her a pony."

Lorenzo and Ric both sit down at an empty table.

"Well Kristina sure is the center of everyone's attention today huh?" Ric questions with a raised brow.

"Well. I guess Alexis is on alert since the judge decided it was ok for her to take sole custody."

Ric takes a sip of his coffee. "That worries me a little. I need your help because I feel you owe me."

Lorenzo throws up his hands in frustration. "Once Ric. Just once I had an involvement with Alexis…"

Ric laughs. "An involvement? That's funny."

"I'm trying to be PG-13 here. But because you're truly the only friend I have in this town, what do you want?"

"I want you to make sure that Alexis can never do to me what she did to Sonny today."

Lorenzo pauses to think. "Well there's a difference. The judge felt Kristina's life was in danger. She also felt Sonny was a bit on the impulsive side. Alexis had a strong case against him. I don't think she can take baby Ricky from you. I don't think she would even go there."

Alexis sat in her limo with her cell phone still perched on her ear waiting to break through the constant busy signals of Zander's phone. Another call came through.

"Yes AJ." She answered. "Sonny's where? He's what!" Alexis' eyes grew wide. "I'm in my limo right now. In traffic. We can deter. Where is Zander?" She bit her lip. "I thought they canceled lunch together. He's supposed to be watching Kristina. I can't have her out of anyone's sight. I'll be there in a minute."

Alexis slammed her cell phone closed and redirected the limo driver in the direction of the Q mansion.

Sonny stared fiercely at the glass half empty of Scotch. He broke his focus with a knock on the wall from AJ in the Q family room. Sonny finished the last of his drink and gave AJ his attention.

"I called Alexis. You're not supposed to be here. She's on her way to take Kristina home." AJ calmly stated from a distance with a devious grin.

Sonny stumbled for a moment and yanked up a document from the table while he flung it madly for AJ to see. "She has no right. None. Do you know what this paper says?"

"Not a clue Sonny. I can only imagine. You seem upset and a bit intoxicated. That's my grandfather's best Scotch. He'll sue you if you drink it all."

Sonny belted out a boisterous laugh and ripped up the document. He took his glass and the Scotch bottle and turned what was left into the glass. He toasted the air, dropped the bottle, and threw back his drink down his throat. "All gone as Kristina would say."

"Ok. Where is Zander, Sonny? Alexis said he was in charge."

Sonny touched his temple for a moment. "Oh. Zander? He's preoccupied. Programmed son of a…"

"Sonny!" Alexis raced in—her face obviously flushed. "You are not allowed to be near Kristina until the judge and I hash out the details of the custody."

Sonny clicked his tongue and threw his head side to side. "I want a say. You don't know what happened to me. I was shot at!" He pointed to himself. "I wasn't the shooter Alexis! I can't help being a target! Instead of condemning me all the time, help me find a solution!"

AJ smirked. "Witness protection called and said they needed you to do a commercial. Membership is down."

Alexis sneered at AJ. "Don't make fun of the situation AJ."

"Alexis, he obviously doesn't have the wits about him to even discuss this." AJ bent over and picked up the empty Scotch bottle from the ground. "He finished off my grandfather's good Scotch. Kristina has been upstairs all alone since you did something with Zander. And not once have you attempted to go upstairs to even spend time with her when you had the chance. You chose to be spiteful and drink all of my grandfather's Scotch instead."

AJ moved closer to Sonny. "I used to be like you Sonny. All I wanted was possession of Michael. But when I had him, I barely ever spent any time with him…"

"AJ. You helped me win my case. I don't need you to poke fun at Sonny. Please stop."

Ric looked at his watch. Brooke Lynn looks up for a moment at the clock and figures still a couple more hours till dawn. She bundles up her body tight and prays that the rest of the story turned nightmare is a wash.

Lorenzo sat back in his chair and watched Ric ponder over his last words. "You gotta be somewhere Ric?"

"Alexis said 6 so I was checking my watch. I was really in love with her."

"Are you guys over?"

"Yes. I'm sure. Not just because of you. It was doomed from the beginning."

"She still cares deeply about Sonny."

Ric looked at Lorenzo in shocked. "Huh? That's caring? What?"

Lorenzo shrugged his shoulders. "That's what she told me. She's still in love with him. But…well I think Alexis is in love with Sonny. Natasha I'm not sure about."

"What's the damn difference Lo?"

"That's why you two don't work Ric. You don't pay attention to her. I do. I know the difference."

Sonny, stumbling along the way, moved in closer to Alexis. She straightened up her back ready for him to come towards her with all he had left in him. He kept his distance, but pointed in her direction. "Alexis. You take Kristina from me, it won't be pretty."

The judge's decree was explicit. She sided with Alexis unanimously. She almost went as far as to grant a restraining order, but both parties felt the move to be the extreme.

Alexis ignored his threat and turned away from him feeling deep down inside that maybe she made a mistake. But Natasha spoke to her and told her that Kristina would forgive her in the end. The day Sonny was shot, Alexis had diverted the time of visitation because something told her it wouldn't be a good idea. Kristina could have died she kept telling herself.

She walked from his drunken stature and headed up the stairs disappearing at the top. Sonny waited in the foyer for her to emerge not sure what he'd do when she did. He thought about it heavily and for a minute figured he'd forfeit everything—his love for Kristina, his love for Alexis, and maybe even his love for himself.

Every thought humanly possible ran through his head. Sonny knew Alexis' power. It spanned beyond her and reached to the remaining Cassadines, Stefan and Nik. They disapproved of him completely, but they always gave Alexis her space until needed. He figured them to be in her speed dial.

He thought about jumping from a bridge kind of like that guy in that movie with angels getting wings with the chime of church bells. He couldn't remember the details though the scenes of black and white played over in his head.

He had always figured that going from a paperboy sloshing through the nasty ass snow to the powerful man in the limo buying the news from that boy in the too little suit was as wonderful as life could get. He had money. He had power, but he never in a million years banked on finding love.

Money and power was easy to lose he thought. Just like whatshisname in that movie. He shook his head in desperation to remember his name. Well whateverhisname was finally shown that wonderful was in love, family, and believing in angels. Sonny pounded his head and tried not to admit to himself that AJ's rant was right.

Sonny had gotten word from Robin that Zander was to have Kristina for the evening while Alexis, Ric, Lorenzo, and Justus went over a case that perplexed them all. Sonny knew they'd be tied up long enough for him to say goodbye to Kristina. He was ready to forfeit his love for her, but he knew he was fooling himself.

Sonny caught Zander walking into the Quartermaine mansion with Kristina resting in his arms. He had grabbed him by his collar and pointed a gun at the back of his head. He knew he'd never kill the boy that was like a son to him, but he was more concerned that Kristina would finally see the dark side of her father.

Luckily, unlike him, the child could sleep through a storm. Sonny often told her stories about storms that only hung over the dungeon of Wyndemere where Helena's cackle often lurked between the walls.

Zander complied with Sonny's request to take Kristina upstairs to the nursery made just for her. It always cut Sonny deep that Alexis would allow Kristina to find a home at the Q's when they came to visit, but she never allowed the baby to step foot in PH4.

Zander came back downstairs not believing for a minute that Sonny would harm him. Sonny grabbed the boy again, tied him up, and dumped him in the wine cellar in the basement.

When Sonny returned up the stairs and to the nursery to see Kristina, he realized she was peaceful. He watched her for a moment in her bed clinging tight to her lamby and a small glass bottle with a picture of a white flower with green leaves on the front. He eyed the bottle closely and touched it lightly hoping not to disturb the child.

Sonny realized what it was and slowly removed it from the Kristina's tight grip. She fought him for a moment, but she gave up to her slumber. He examined the bottle and realized it was stolen. A beautiful little thief he thought to himself. He inhaled the gardenia perfume that Kristina never failed to swipe from her mother's purse whenever the child heard the words "goodbye" or "see you later". Her swarthy skin would turn a shade of crimson and the wells of her eyes would fill with tears. And to avoid any further separation anxiety, Alexis would immediately grab her cell phone from her purse and pretend to be distracted from the onset of Kristina's tantrum. And in her mother's distraction, Kristina would steal her mother's perfume bottle to calm her tiny nerves.

Sonny promptly returned the bottle and went back downstairs knowing he was losing his angel. He knew she was too small and too naïve to even think of pulling him back from the bridge where he'd be ready to jump knowing he had truly lost all things wonderful.

Downstairs in the family room, he decided nothing mattered anymore. He chose to test his ability to down all but one drop of Edward's best Scotch while savoring the look on the old man's face when he walked in on the empty bottle.

The couple of minutes that it took for these thoughts to past through Sonny's mind couldn't possibly beat the seconds in which tragedy would strike.

He stood at the bottom of the stairs in shock at all he had lost. He gave up and just waited while the alcohol weakened every muscle in his body. I was always in control he thought.

He watched Kristina stick her hand through the banister to wave to him below. She called for him. "Daddy! Watch me Daddy! I can do it by myself!"

He heard Alexis yelling "Kristina Chloe Morgan Davis!" from afar.

He heard Zander finally freed and cursing like a sailor on his way up from downstairs.

So many distractions filled his head so similar to the ones he tried to shake while sitting in the back corner of the classroom despite being the shortest kid in the class. He could never see the board and nor did he really care to. He'd just pull out his pad and draw pictures and dreamed trying to shut off the noise in his head.

Sonny's eyes hung heavy despite the yelling for his attention and cursing and calling of names. He neglected to notice Kristina climb atop the banister just like he often showed her when they'd sneak away to break into the Quartermaine mansion.

He swore to himself it was nothing more than another one of his drunken nightmares he always suffered when Alexis and Kristina would say goodbye to return to the city leaving him all alone and surrounded by false smiles and helpless souls all missing out on the wonderful life beyond the organization. He miscalculated the nightmare thrust down towards him from the top of the stairs.

Alexis stopped searching for Kristina in the nursery and answered up her ringing phone. "Yes Ric."

"I can't find my child. We'll discuss later. Don't ask questions Ric." Alexis hung up and heard the words that sent chills up her spine. Kristina yelled down to Sonny her abilities to do it alone after her ascension to the top.

Alexis spotted the child ready to fly from the banister. The lioness in her didn't have to think for a minute on what to do. She dropped her phone to the ground and raced to her daughter diving from the banister.

Sonny turned to walk away holding his head to stifle the sounds of Kristina's voice calling his name. He soon turned back to Alexis' scream for him to catch Kristina flinging her tiny body to the bottom. He could barely move and Alexis quickly realized his paralysis. Alexis took a leap and tumbled down while reaching out to grab Kristina.

Zander came up from the basement ready to pummel Sonny, but he paused in horror. AJ walked out from the kitchen with his eyes grown wide. Sonny banged his head on the front door trying to wake up from what he thought was a nightmare.

Brooke Lynn wakes up practically unable to catch her breath. Alexis buries her head in her pillow from not getting much sleep from Brooke's constant tossing and turning.

"Brooke? You ok?" Alexis asks as she sits up to turn on the light.

Brooke finally wakes up and adjusts her eyes to the light. "I should not have asked what happened to Baby Ricky. I feel like I was there. I would have caught you Alexis."

Alexis gives Brooke Lynn a weak smile that only an early morning lack of sleep could muster up. "Go back to bed Dear. We'll discuss this more in the morning."