Claudia looked from Nikolas to Sonny. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something felt weird. There was a history here. She could find out about that later.
"Sonny?," she interrupted the staring contest. "Where were you?"
Sonny turned to Claudia. "With a friend."
"A friend." Yeah. Guess who?
"Yeah, I needed a friend to hold me back," Sonny kept his fury under wraps, but Claudia had lived with him long enough to catch the violence underneath his words. Her heart monitor immediately began to speed up.
"What's going on, Claudia?" Nikolas hurried to her bedside.
"Calm down, Claudia." Sonny was completely exasperated with Claudia. She always went into dramatic overdrive when the baby was in the worst danger. Sonny headed for the door to try to find a doctor.
Claudia stared at the fetal monitor. Nikolas also tried making heads or tails of it. "Do you think the baby's in trouble?," she asked Nikolas.
"I can answer that," Dr. Lee said, entering the room, just as Sonny reached the door. She took note of Nikolas. "I need to speak to the parents alone."
Nikolas started for the door, but didn't quite make it. Something was wrong. Between Claudia and Sonny. And now it looked like he wasn't going to be around long enough to pick anything up by observing.
I'll just have to find out another way, thought Nikolas. Like in Italian.
"Egli parla italiano? " Does he speak Italian? As soon as the first word was out of his mouth, he knew Claudia understood.
"Egli probabilmente lo capisce," Claudia answered carefully. He probably understands it.
"You bet he does," said Sonny.
Right. Italian was too close to Spanish. Nikolas was so stymied, he almost missed the next words out of Claudia's mouth. "Но он не знает русский язык." But he does not know Russian language.
Nikolas' eyes widened. How many languages did Claudia know? Never mind. Important question first. "Что происходит? " What's happening?
"Он знает, что я отвечаю за то, что произошло --" She caught herself before she said Michael's name. " Для своего сына. ." He knows that I am responsible for what happened. To his son.
"What are you telling him, Claudia?," Sonny said, with just a hint of menace.
"Он собирается убить тебя." He is going to kill you. Nikolas stated it like fact, but Claudia understood it like the question he meant it to be.
"Не с ребенком внутри меня." Not with the child inside me.
And Nikolas got it. The whole thing. The pregnancy. The fact that Claudia never thought about long-term. A year was long-term to Claudia. And now the months were ticking down.
Sonny interrupted his thoughts. "You sure she's telling you the truth, Nikolas? Claudia's awfully good at lying."
"Mr. Corinthos," said Dr. Lee. "This isn't the time."
"You're right," said Sonny. "I'm sorry."
"Claudia has never lied to me. She's never had to." Nikolas sidestepped Sonny, and spoke directly to Claudia. "You take care of yourself and that baby."
And for the first time since her mother left America, Claudia believed in fairytale princes.
Nikolas left the room and kept walking. He'd find out how the baby was doing later. When he read the file.
*****************************************
Night. Nikolas's hospital office.
Nikolas closed Claudia's hospital file. High risk pregnancy. And even though the doctors didn't know enough about Claudia's living conditions to put it in her chart, there were two lives at stake.
He picked up his phone and dialed.
*****************************************
Claudia's Hospital Room.
Nikolas opened the door only to find Sonny sitting by Claudia's bedside.
"It's pretty late for you to be visiting my wife, Cassadine. What's so important that you had to come here now?"
Claudia jerked awake, and sat up in her bed. "What's happening?"
"Nikolas Cassadine is here for a visit." Sonny checked Claudia's reaction, but she was too tired to be anything but puzzled.
Nikolas smiled at her. "Just working late. Thought I'd check in on you."
"Thanks."
Sonny stood up, and prevented Nikolas from entering any further. He pressed his forefinger into Nikolas' chest as he spoke. "I'm going to be here all night. Checking on her. So it's all covered. You can go home. And tell you what..." Sonny flashed his dimples. "I'll call you if we need you." The smile faded. "You stay away until I do."
Nikolas looked over at Claudia. "I'm glad you're resting. Good night."
"Good night," answered Claudia as she sunk back into the bed.
Nikolas left the room.
"Yeah. Nighty-night," said Sonny.
"Shut up, Sonny," Claudia said, rolling over.
Sonny sat back down in the chair next to his wife. What was this thing with her and Nikolas? At heart, Sonny didn't think they were sleeping together. Sonny, Ric and Nikolas? That was too much even for Claudia. But it looked like something even stranger. It looked like they were friends. And Claudia didn't do friendship. What was this?
Outside, Nikolas headed home to think up a new game plan.
*****************************************
Sunlight streamed into Claudia's hospital room, waking her. Sonny was awake, right by her side. It looked like he'd been there, awake, all night. And he looked cranky. She couldn't blame him, but she was pretty cranky herself. Her sleep had been fitful with Sonny by her side. It's hard to go to sleep when you're not sure if you're going to wake up because your husband wants to kill you.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi."
The door to Claudia's room flung open.
"Good morning, Miss Zacchara," said Alfred, as he entered the room bearing a breakfast tray.
"Mrs. Corinthos," Sonny muttered. "Max!"
Max quickly followed Alfred into the room. "Yeah, boss."
"What is this?"
"This is breakfast," said Alfred. "Compliments of Master Nikolas."
"Hi, Alfred," said Claudia, beginning to smile.
No sooner had Alfred set the tray down then Sonny pulled the tray cover off. Sure enough, a hot and great-smelling breakfast was on the tray.
Sonny grabbed Alfred's collar and pulled the man toward him.
"Sir!," Alfred gasped.
"Where's your "master"?" Sonny queried him.
"Sonny, let go of Alfred."
"Master Nikolas is in his office, sir. Now, please. Unhand me."
Sonny let go of Alfred. He rubbed his own stubbled face. He slowly turned to Claudia.
"After everything else, you're going to kill me for eating a little breakfast?," she asked.
Sonny sized up the situation, and then answered slowly. "Eat up."
He headed out of the room.
Claudia looked sheepishly at Alfred. "Sorry. I don't know what he was thinking, sending you here. Hey, are those my scones?"
"Yes, Mrs. Corinthos." He shook a little while saying it, and looked over at Max nervously.
"Miss Zacchara," Claudia corrected. She took a bite and then turned to Max. "You're scaring him. Look at him. Do you think he's a threat?"
"No, Mrs. C."
"Do you think you could wait outside?"
"Sure, Mrs. C."
Max left the room. The door shut behind him.
"I hate to say it, Alfred, but I think Sonny's gonna kill your boss. Not literally. Not yet anyway. What was Nik thinking, sending you here with breakfast?"
"Actually, Miss Zacchara, he was counting on Mr. Corinthos seeking him out. The breakfast, such as it is --"
"Hey, this is a great breakfast."
"Yes, but it's also a, how shall I put this? A cover."
"A what?"
"Master Nikolas wanted to make sure you had this." Alfred pulled a .40 Smith and Wesson semi-automatic from his inside jacket pocket. "Or this." He pulled out a .38 Special revolver. "He didn't know which you'd prefer."
Claudia looked at Alfred as though he were an alien life form, and then quickly took the semi-automatic. "I'm more of a semi girl." She tucked the gun under her pillow.
Alfred quickly placed the revolver back into his coat pocket. "You should really keep eating, Miss Zacchara, if our cover story is to work."
"Right." Claudia dug in.
"You see, Master Nikolas says you need to avoid stress, and he also says that the only way for that to happen is for you to feel safe. And the only way for that to happen is for you to be able to protect yourself."
Claudia's eyes welled up. "Well. You tell Master Nikolas that he was right, and he was also right, and he was right." Claudia laughed. "And tell him thank you."
*****************************************
"What's so hard about staying away from Claudia? Most people try to stay away from Claudia."
"Not going to happen," Nikolas replied evenly.
"Maybe you don't understand what happens to people who --"
"Who what, Sonny? Emily obeyed you and Jason all the time, and she got killed anyway. I'll take my chances."
Both men started when Elizabeth entered the room. She looked back and forth between them. "Sonny. Nikolas."
"I was just leaving, Liz." Sonny shot a parting glance at Nikolas. "Stay away from my wife."
The door slammed shut behind Sonny.
Liz and Nikolas muddled through an awkward silence. I guess it's up to me, thought Liz.
"So when you say 'I'll see you later on Spoon Island,' you mean really later. As in next week. Or something," she teased Nikolas.
Nikolas had forgotten about yesterday. "I'm sorry. I got tied up."
"In Claudia Zacchara?"
"It's complicated."
"Is that Cassadine for 'I don't want to talk about it?," Liz pressed.
"Yes."
"Okay." Liz was giving up a little too easily. "I followed Rebecca yesterday." Just as he thought: way too easily.
"I want you to stay out of this, Liz," Nikolas warned.
"I'm already in it, Nikolas. I'm your friend," she reminded him.
Nikolas leaned against his desk, tapping his foot, considering his options. Liz giving this up was a lost cause. And he didn't want her going around without him having any idea of the trouble she was getting into on his behalf.
"All right," he said suddenly.
"All right what?," she asked, taken aback.
"We do this Rebecca thing together," he gave in. "But no one but us can know about it." He reconsidered. "Except Alexis. But I get to tell her."
"Deal."
Liz came and leaned beside him. She took note of Claudia's hospital file. There was a little Stefan in Nikolas after all.
"Speaking of deals," she segued. "What's the deal with you and Claudia Zacchara?"
"Corinthos. And there's no deal. We're just, I don't know -- we have some things in common."
"What does that mean?" Liz's eyes widened. "Are you falling for her or something?"
Nikolas' face fell. "I wish I was," he said. "After Emily -- and now Rebecca -- I don't think I'm ever going to be able to feel like that again."
*****************************************
Alfred and the tray were gone by the time Sonny got back to Claudia's hospital room.
"You have a good breakfast?"
"Yes."
Claudia made a big show of rolling onto her side. She tucked her hand under her pillow.
"Comfortable?"
"I tell you what," Claudia said. "I'm so comfortable, I'm going to take a nice, long nap." She closed her eyes and smiled.
