Ch. 48

There was a sign outside the doors of the Metro Court ballroom that read, "Closed for Private Party". Carly and the staff at the hotel had done their best to make the Thanksgiving holiday a festive one for those who would be attending the family celebration. The ballroom itself was decorated in fall colors of reds, oranges, russet browns and deep golds. The centerpieces on each table consisted of sunflowers, roses, chrysanthemums, lilies, and daisies in varying orange and red hues with scented tapered candles. The smells of cinnamon, apple and cloves filled the air, lending the ballroom an intimate feeling of "home".

Most of those who were invited to attend were already milling around the room when Val and Dante arrived at the hotel. They were greeted by Carly herself, who upon seeing them remarked, "Wow—don't you two look good! Whether or not you planned it, you both fit in with my color scheme perfectly. Come on through." Choosing to dress in keeping with the season, Val was wearing a pumpkin colored suede jacket and a tightly woven plaid skirt with shades of deep rust, yellow, orange and purple. With much persuading, she was able to convince Dante to wear a pair of burnt orange jeans with a black button down dress shirt by assuring him that he only had to wear them for the day. He had never worn such a shade in his life and he had chuckled to himself as he got dressed for the party that because of Val's influence, he was trying all kinds of things he hadn't done before. The bright smile she gave him when she saw him for the first time that afternoon after he had gotten dressed was worth it, though. He had to admit, though only to himself, that they did look good together…

While Dante went to greet his brothers and their guests, Val went to the kitchen to drop off her cranberry-apple chicken salad dish. She entered the room where she was greeted by Sonny and Mike, who were both decked out in aprons as they put the finishing touches on the meats they were preparing for the dinner. Mike gave Val a huge smile when he saw her and after taking the dish from her and placing it into one of the large refrigerators in the kitchen, he reached out to give her an accompanying hug, which she happily returned. "Hey, Val! It's good to see you—Happy Thanksgiving!" he said, adding, "Welcome to the madhouse!" She touched Sonny's shoulder in acknowledgement of his "head toss" greeting and responded, "Madhouse? You two seem to have everything under control, as usual. It smells divine in here! I know how you guys work so I made sure to bring my appetite with me!" "Good thing," Sonny answered, beaming back at her, "'cause we're definitely gonna feast today!" After a few more moments of small talk about the dinner and her own contribution to the meal, Val made her way out to the ballroom to mingle.

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Various conversations were taking place while the final touches were being put on the main banquet table. Overheard:

Morgan and Kiki—"I can't believe you still haven't told your family that we're not together anymore, Morgan! I don't want them getting the wrong idea-" "You can't chill for one day, Kiki? I'm gonna tell them later, ok?"

Michael and Sabrina—"It might not seem like the right setting or time but trust me, my parents are gonna be thrilled when they hear our news! Don't worry so much." "You HOPE they'll be thrilled but I'm not sure, Michael. Maybe we should wait until we can get them on their own…"

Ric and Jordan—"DA Lansing." "Commissioner Ashford." "Did you lose something?" "Oh, my watch. Thanks. I wondered where I'd left it." "I found it on the sink in my bathroom." "Well you know what they say—when you leave something behind, it means you want to go back again. Maybe tonight?" "Looking forward to it…"

Bobbie and Lucas—"Isn't Brad coming, honey?" "He should be here a bit later. He couldn't find anyone to switch shifts with him so he got stuck in the lab. They're shutting down early, though…"

TJ and Molly—"At least it looks like our parents are getting along, TJ! I didn't think they'd have anything to talk about." "I was surprised, too, but they've been talking for a while over there. I hope they're not talking about us, though…"

Dante, Val and Kristina—"This is my little sister, Kristina. Kristina, this is Val Spencer." "It's nice to meet you, Kristina—I've heard a lot about you. Last year at Yale, right? Good for you!" "Umm, yeah, I'm in my last year, I hope… It's good to meet you too, Valerie. I've heard a lot about you, too, from my brothers. I think Michael is especially impressed with you!" "That's only because I fed him food from one of his favorite pizza joints…"

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Once all the dishes had been placed on the banquet table that had been set up for them, Sonny whistled loudly to get everyone's attention in the room. Into the silence, Carly addressed the crowd with, "Hello everyone and Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to the Corinthos/Spencer Family feast! Sonny and I are glad you all are here! The table is ready and we have more than enough food so everyone eat up, get full and enjoy spending this time with family! We're doing this buffet style so grab a plate and go for it!"

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The broad smile Val had on her face all day only dimmed slightly when she and Jordan made eye contact over the candied yam dish Jordan had brought. She gave her boss a small nod, her eyes shifting away at the last minute as she said, "Commissioner Ashford—it's good to see you and TJ here today. I'm glad you two could join us." "It was kind of Carly and Sonny to invite us. Look," she finally unbent enough to add, "it's Thanksgiving. For today, we can go back to being 'Jordan' and 'Valerie', ok?" Val, realizing what a huge concession this was, tried not to show her happiness at this evidence of Jordan's thawing toward her and she flatly answered, "I appreciate that, Jordan. Thank you." Jordan smirked when she saw Val attempting to downplay her response and she retorted, "You're welcome."

The atmosphere was filled with low droning buzzes and occasional bursts of laughter as several conversations were being conducted while everyone enjoyed their dinner. Like the little social butterfly in training she was becoming, Josslyn, after finishing her dessert, flitted from table to table, making sure everyone was having a good time. She then ran to her mother's table to report that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Carly thanked her for her "hard work" and she happily ran off again to fulfil her "duties" as hostess.

Dante turned to comment on Joss' antics when he noticed Val's eyes were closed and she was swaying gently to the song the DJ Carly had hired for the occasion was playing. He leaned in towards her and as he softly smoothed his finger over her arm he whispered in her ear, "Would you like to dance?" She opened her eyes and briefly scanned the room before turning to him and whispering back, "No one else is dancing, Dante. It's not exactly an occasion for dancing…" "I beg to differ," he told her, rising from his chair and then holding out his hand to her, further saying, "All you need is a spot on the floor and a desire to dance. Come on, Angel. Let's show these people how to party." He twirled her around once and then catching her tightly, they began swaying slowly together. Everyone in the room watched them for a moment and then Michael looked at Sabrina and said, "Dance with me." Finding their own space, they joined Dante and Val on the "dance floor". Recognizing the crowd he was playing for, the DJ began playing music more suited for dancing and soon the floor was filled with merrily gyrating couples showing off their moves.

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The afternoon was sliding into evening when Sonny once again commanded attention of the room, saying, "Hey everybody, listen up! Did everybody get enough to eat?" He was pleased by the enthusiastic responses he received and he smiled broadly as he continued, "Good, good—that's what I wanted to hear! Carly and I are glad you all could come out and, you know, spend the holiday with us. Bein' with family is what it's all about, right? We especially want to thank the staff who, even though they're makin' double-time and a half for bein' here, are still away from their own celebrations right now. They really worked hard to make this special for us." Someone in the room started a spontaneous round of applause, which the Metro Court staff greatly appreciated and graciously accepted. When the applause died down, Sonny continued, "I got my dad here, who knows what to do with a turkey, right? I wanna thank him for stickin' around after the weddin' to spend this part of the holiday season with us. It's been great havin' him here." More light applause went around the room and Mike inclined his head in acknowledgement of Sonny's words. He went on, "All of you participated in bringin' somethin' special to the table and we wanted to thank you all for that, too. Traditions are important and I like this one we just started. I'm likin' the idea of doin' this every year." Assents of agreement went around the room at this statement and Sonny laughed aloud, stating, "Yeah, thought so! Free food, free booze, good company—can't beat it, right? We've got my brother Ric and his daughter Molly with us—my man TJ and his mom, too. Carly and I are thankful you all could join us. Carly's mom and brother are here, too, with his man—we've got a good crowd. Finally, for the first time in a long time, I've got all my kids in one room! Kristina's home from college, my boys are here with their girlfriends-"

"Morgan and I aren't together anymore," Kiki interrupted, the dinner wine having loosened her tongue.

"Huh?"

"Morgan and I broke up so one of your sons isn't here with his girlfriend. I found out that he was screwing my mom behind my back and it kind of ended the relationship." The room was stunned to silence before Sonny cleared his throat and answered, "Oh, ok. Morgan didn't tell us about that so we thought you were still his girlfriend-"

"Nope," Kiki replied while Morgan frantically tried to quiet her, eventually exclaiming in exasperation, "Damn, Kiki—SHUT UP!" Carly quickly interjected, "Don't talk to her that way, Morgan! You should have told us the truth before now!"

"I was gonna tell you after the holiday was over," Morgan insisted, "since you invited her behind my back anyway!" "I only invited her this time because you neglected to invite her to the family dinner we had last time and I didn't want her to feel left out!" "WELL, NOBODY TOLD YOU TO DO THAT, DID THEY?" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

Sonny realized he was losing control of his audience and he sharply snapped, "Morgan! Sit down and be quiet! You don't yell at your mother like that, either! We'll talk about this later! As I was sayin', I've got my kids here with their girlfriends, Kristina home from college-"

"On academic warning," Molly mumbled aloud. "MOLLY!" "Kristina, they're going to find out eventually! You should have told them already that you're thisclose to getting kicked out for partying too hard instead of studying!" "I told you that in confidence! How could you just blab it out like that! You're still such a child!" "I'M not the one flunking out of college!"

"Kristina, what the hell-" "It's not a big deal, Dad, ok? I'll make it up. I just wanted to get home and tell Mom before my professor did. I know she's not supposed to but I also know that she's one of Mom's friends. I didn't trust her not to say anything to Mom, so… Looks like I can't trust ANYBODY, though!" "Ok, lookit. That's disappointin', but we'll have to deal with it later when we can actually sit down with Alexis-"

"I'm an adult, Dad-"

"That ain't changin' anything, Kristina, ok? We'll talk about it later! I was in the middle of somethin' here-"

"Well, since this seems to be the day for family revelations," Michael interrupted, "now might be a good time to tell everyone that Sabrina and I are pregnant. Well, SHE'S pregnant, but I'm the one who got her that way!" A stunned and flabbergasted Sonny eventually sputtered, "Wait a minute, wait a minute—what? What are you sayin' right now?" while a horrified Carly jumped to her feet, exclaiming, "NO! That can't be right, Michael! You and Sabrina haven't been together long enough for her to be pregnant! Tell me you're making this up!"

"How long do we have to be together, Mom? I'm not making anything up! And I told Sabrina you'd be cool with it, so your response isn't helping," Michael replied after leaping to his feet as well, looking down at Sabrina, who was sitting very still with a wide, "deer in headlights" look on her face, her hand covering her mouth in embarrassed shock. "Well I'm NOT COOL with it, Michael! She can't be pregnant, that's all! She just can't be! And I'm too young to be a grandmother!"

"Ok, Carly," Sonny interjected, trying to restore calm once again, "it's a surprise, I know, but we've gotta support the kids if this's what's happenin' with them. And I'M a grandfather, and it ain't so bad-"

"You're OLD ENOUGH TO BE ONE, SONNY!"

"Whoa, what's that supposed to mean? What exactly are you sayin' here?"

Bobbie's attempt to silence her daughter consisted of a hissed, "Carly!" which fell on deaf ears as Carly went on, "Just that it makes sense for YOU to be a grandfather by now, given how many kids you actually have! But Michael is still a baby—MY baby-"

"Obviously not," Michael and Sonny exclaimed simultaneously. Carly tried to explain to the mortified Sabrina, "It's nothing against you personally, Sabrina-" falling silent when she caught Sonny's furious expression as he stood there with his hands on his hips. "Well it's sure coming across as personal, Mom! Look at her face-"

"OK—ENOUGH!" Mike finally roared. He went on once the room was quiet, "I think what my son was trying to do was thank everyone for spending the holiday together as a family! We were all having a great time with one another until the evening devolved into a free-for-all confession session! There are plenty of leftovers, which the staff has graciously wrapped up for us all to take home—anything we don't take will be given to the homeless shelter downtown. Did I miss anything, Michael?"

"No, Mike," Sonny said in an uncharacteristically subdued voice.

"Then I'm thinking that pretty much brings the evening's festivities to a close. Happy Thanksgiving, thanks for coming, get home safely, have a good night! Damn." The celebrants slowly shrugged into coats and jackets as they realized that the evening was indeed over. Catching Carly's attention, Val mouthed, "Thanks for everything. Good night." Silently acknowledging her thanks, Carly nodded back. Dante, after giving his father a slightly embarrassed shrug, took Val's hand and led her from the hotel ballroom.

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They both breathed deeply of the night air outside the Metro Court before their eyes met and darted away as they tried to keep from laughing. They made it to the car and as Dante started the engine he began chuckling. Val snorted out a snicker and in moments, they were laughing uproariously. "Oh, my God, what just happened?" Val finally managed to gasp, attempting to catch her breath. "You tell me and we'll both know," Dante answered, wiping his by now streaming eyes, adding, "Happy Thanksgiving!" They both dissolved into renewed laughter. "It isn't funny—we shouldn't be laughing," admonished Val, unsuccessfully quashing her merriment. "I know, but damn, leave it to my family-" "OUR family," Val corrected, causing them even more amusement. "Right, right, OUR family," Dante repeated, adding, "What a way to end the evening!"

"Who says the evening is over?"

"Why? What'd you have in mind?"

"Let's get a bottle of wine when we get home, go out on the terrace with the iPod, drink a couple of glasses and dance the rest of the night away. I liked being in your arms earlier, Just Mine. Let's have a good ending to the night."

"I like it, Angel, with only one amendment."

"Like?"

"After we dance, let's end the night making love on the rug in front of the fireplace."

"So doable, JM. You've got yourself a deal."

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