Angst meter is on high here, so be warned.



"You're sure?"

"Do it."

"It's just... "

"Are you questioning my orders?"

Of course he wasn't, because to do so could mean his life.

"I'll take care of it."

Sonny didn't so much as look at his conversation partner. Instead he focused on what was about to happen, on the job at hand.

Enemies got payback... and it was time for payback.

He'd waited for weeks, watching her begin to relax as the custody hearing became a bad memory for her. It was much more than that for him. Much more. And he would never forget that she had caused his worst nightmare to come true.

His kids were gone... placed into the hands of his enemy as gifts, wrapped and delivered by Alexis Davis.

There was no comfort in the visitation privileges he'd been granted. Sonny could not bring himself to look at that as any kind of victory, even though Carly and her "attorney" had asked for sole custody.

Wednesdays and every other weekend... that's what he got of his son's lives because his wife had gone to Alcazar's bed and Alexis had sold her soul to the two of them.

She'd be surprised. He liked that. Some part of him enjoyed that she'd never believed his threats. It would make the follow-through that much sweeter. Her shock would feed his need for revenge, and in days to come, Sonny promised himself, he would relish the memory of Alexis broken and terrified as penance for her betrayal.

As he'd hatched his plot, a small voice of conscience tried to reason with Sonny, reminding him of the desperation he'd sensed in her as she'd questioned him on the stand. But simply thinking about his testimony and her cross-examination reminded him of why she had to be put in her place.

He had given her his trust... he had told her secrets that he thought would never pass her lips in conversation with anyone but him... and she had thrown them all back in his face not just that once, but over and over again--in the hospital, at her sister's funeral, when she had run for D.A. Sonny had used ugly words and made bold, terrifying promises to try and show her the potential costs of her continued treachery, yet he'd always left it at just words, hoping it would be enough.

But that day in family court had proved she had yet to learn her lesson. The mention of that closet, of Deke...

His hand slammed into the desk, the physical pain dulling the emotional for just a moment.

"Lorenzo could have been threatening her," Justus had reasoned. "She killed his brother, Sonny. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he's intimidating her into doing this."

It was sound logic, but there was no place for reason inside the tortured mind of Sonny Corinthos. There was only the need for revenge... only the need to see her suffering and to have her know that this time, he had not spoken hollow words.

He would break her... and he would do it today.

*****

"Explain it to me." Ric said as the terrified man fought to control his shaking hands.

"Look, I-I can't."

The assistant D.A stood up, looming over the suspect. "Tell me what happened, step by step, or I'm gonna open the front doors of this station and throw you out to all your friends from the park."

The man trembled. His clothes were tattered and covered with his blood--gifts from the "friends" Ric had mentioned. Understanding the clearly stated threat, he nodded furiously and began to bounce his leg nervously beneath the table.

"I... I didn't mean... look, it was a prank, okay? It was just a prank. I never meant... I was just gonna go up while she was loading stuff in the car. You know how mothers are, they always have so much stuff, they don't pay attention really so long as the kid's strapped into something."

"And Kristina was in her stroller?" Ric's stomach rolled over at the thought of that beautiful little girl and what she had been through today.

"Yeah, she was in it," the man continued. "The lady was putting stuff in the trunk and I was supposed to go up, grab the stroller and, you know, take off."

"Where were you supposed to take the child?"

"I wasn't gonna 'take her' take her," he said defensively, as if that made some difference. "I was just gonna go around a few corners in the park, and then leave her near a group of the other moms and kids. Figured her mother'd be freakin' out, running all over and find her soon enough."

"But that's not what happened, is it?" Ric asked, a near growl in his voice.

"No, sir," the suspect said, his eyes lowering shamefully. "That's not what happened."

*****

It was the crowd that got his attention. Soon enough he saw the flashing lights of the police cars and the ambulance, but it was the large crowd of screaming, angry people that made him stop and take a look.

That's when he saw the battered man being led to a squad car by Lucky Spencer and his partner, four other officers holding positions around them to keep the furious mob away.

It took awhile for the face to become clear through the haze of dirt and blood that covered it, but he recognized that face from the docks.

And then he saw the paramedics loading their gurney into the ambulance.

His blood thundered in his ears. Dear God, no...

*****

"Okay, sweetheart, let's head home for our nap, hmm?" Alexis chirped, her spirits very bright for the first time in a long time. Carly was still threatening to expose her secret nearly every other day, causing unimaginable stress. But her daughter continued to be the joy of Alexis' life... worth, she knew, every single terrible moment she had endured before, during and after her baby's arrival.

And something else had happened... something unexpected, dangerous, wonderful, terrifying and unbelievable. She was learning to trust again. The man responsible for that couldn't have surprised her more if it were her brother Stavros... that's how unlikely the whole situation was. But slowly, their friendship was building, and though it had been established over the bond of a mutually held secret, she was coming to depend upon it in a way she had doubted she might after the last few years.

The walk back to the parking lot was easy, the footpath fairly clear this time of day, though there were lots of parents and kids at the playground. Alexis parked the stroller right next to the trunk, close in so that no cars could clip it and injure her little girl.

"Okay, let Mommy unpack, and then we'll go home and snuggle with... "

"Lamby!" Kristina shouted, her hands clapping together happily.

Alexis chuckled at her daughter's enthusiasm. They both loved days like this, when she wasn't rushing off to appointments and they could have a slow-paced morning followed by a nap and then lunch at Kelly's.

The mother's keys dangled from the trunk lock as she began to pull the toys and blanket from the pack under Kristina's stroller. The baby was babbling on about taking a bath with Lamby, and Alexis smiled at the memory of Kristina dropping the treasured toy into the drink before she could stop her.

"Good thing our dryer works so fast, huh, little one?"

Dropping her purse into the usual spot she left it while wrangling the stroller, Alexis rearranged a few items to make sure there was enough room for the contraption. She caught the movement just out of the corner of her eye, and turned just in time to see a five gloved fingers latch onto the handle of the stroller.

"No!"

*****

Sonny looked up from his glass of scotch as the pounding on his door began. He had locked it earlier, wanting nothing to interrupt his consuming thoughts of revenge. The sound stopped, and Sonny remained in his seat, hoping that his visitor had gone away.
But then the banging started up again, this time accompanied by a voice.

"Sonny, open the damn door!"

Sighing, he rose up and crossed over, twisting the lock, turning the knob and letting Jason inside.

"What do you want?" Sonny asked, his tone brusque and unwelcoming.

"I was wondering if you knew where David was."

He did a double take despite his attempt to hide any indication that he had a rough idea of where David should be.

"I don't keep tabs on all my men. You want him, go find him."

Jason shook his head, and that was when Sonny noticed the way Jason was looking at him. It was an expression of disappointment Sonny had not seen since that long ago night when he and Carly had been discovered by the man they had both let down.

"What?!" he yelled, turning away so he no longer had to see Jason's scrutiny.

"David's at the police station."

That was unexpected. Sonny whirled back around.

"Wh-why is he at the station?"

"You know why."

The phrase, "his gut twisted into knots," took on new meaning as Sonny felt a sick, dreadful feeling overwhelm him.

"I..."

But Sonny got no further. Jason exploded.

"You went after her kid?! What the hell were you thinking?"

The fury emanating from Jason literally pushed Sonny back two steps. It was the anticipation of this very reaction that had led him to cut Jason out of the loop as he'd planned his little scheme. Jason would do almost anything, but he'd have balked at touching Kristina, even as a stunt. There had been a time when Sonny would have, too.

"I did what I had to do!" Sonny screamed back. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

"The hell you don't."

Sonny forced his eyes level with Jason's. He saw contempt there. He tried to ignore how much that hurt.

"She cost me my children. I wanted her to know what it felt like to know someone you hate, someone you're afraid of can have power of you, over your children. I wanted her to know what that feels like."

"And this was the best way you could think to do that?" Jason asked, truly perplexed. "Sonny, what was going on in your head? You want to drag Alexis into a warehouse and scare her? We've done that before. You want me to follow her around and make her feel uncomfortable, fine, but this... Jesus, Sonny, it's a kid."

"Nothing happened to the kid, okay? It was to scare Alexis, pure and simple."

Sonny waited. Jason stood silently, just staring at him, and Sonny assumed the conversation was over. He turned and headed for the bar and poured himself a drink.

"Have someone not connected to us go bail David out. Stupid idiot, I can't believe he got caught."

"I doubt David's getting out on bail," Jason informed him. "Not when he's looking at an attempted murder charge on top of attempted kidnapping."

The glass slipped from his hand. "What are you talking about? What attempted murder?"

For the second time, Jason shook his head in disbelief. "Did you think she wouldn't fight him, Sonny? Did you think someone could even look cross-eyed at that little girl, and Alexis wouldn't fight with everything she had to stop him?"

"What happened?!" Sonny screamed.

"He shot her," Jason stated coldly. "He shot Alexis in front of her daughter... and then a group of people jumped him."

Sonny's stomach physically cramped at the shock of what he'd just heard. Shot? But that wasn't... that's not what was supposed...

"Is she..."

"She's alive."

His eyes closed in gratitude. She was alive.

"I never meant..." Sonny grappled for words. "No one was supposed to get hurt."

"Weren't they?" Jason asked, wondering how Sonny could deny that Alexis hurt, while not physically so, was exactly what he'd wanted all along.

"Not like this!" he barked back. "I didn't want her... I just wanted her to know that she couldn't mess with me anymore, that she needed to back off and stay away."

Jason walked to the door and opened it. He didn't look back as he said his final words.

"I'm guessing she'll get the message now."

*****

"She fought so hard," David recounted to Ric. "I thought I could push her off pretty easy, but... I pulled the gun to scare her, make her step back. But she thought I was pointing it at the kid, and she went for my arm and..."

"So you didn't mean to shoot her, that's your story?" the assistant D.A. asked.

"I swear to God, I didn't mean to."

Ric stopped the tape recorder, took out the tape, and then stood and crossed to Lucky.

"Book this into evidence and then have them type it up for him to sign."

It was clear what Lucky really wanted to do was grab the guy sitting at the table and beat him senseless, his calm exterior having eroded after hearing how Alexis had fought back against this man to protect her child. But he took the tape in hand and obediently walked out the door. Once the uniformed officer was gone, Ric returned to the table and sat down opposite David once again.

"Okay, the tape recorder's empty, no one else is here. So just between you and me... my brother told you to do this, didn't he?"

David began to shake again, but said nothing.

"Thanks, that's all I wanted to know."

Ric headed for the door after that, a mission in mind he had to complete before he went to the hospital.

*****

They hadn't handcuffed him, so Sonny strode into the PCPD with an air of nonchalance that hid the well of guilt he was feeling. He'd already called the hospital three times, trying to find out how Alexis was. They would tell him nothing.

The voice that had driven him to plot against her told him she was just suffering the consequences of having turned against him. His conscience told him he'd gone too far.

Right now, the battle for his soul was a draw.

"Sonny," Ric said, approaching his brother. "I just need to talk to you for a few minutes, if you don't mind."

"No, no, not at all," Sonny answered, his eyes darting around.

"Good, let's just step in here."

Ric motioned toward one of the interrogation rooms, and Sonny walked to it. Once they were both inside, each took a chair and they sat down opposite each other. Sonny noted the bulging manila envelope on the table between them, but didn't think much about it.

"This is unofficial, Sonny, completely off the record. Really, it's just for show. I mean, it would look pretty strange if I didn't even question you about this, given recent events."

"About what?"

"I think you know that," Ric replied. "But don't worry. David's given a full confession, we have 20 witnesses at least. And your name never came up, so this is over."

Sonny shrugged, the gesture helping him to cover his nerves. "I still don't know what you're talking about, but, okay, fine."

"I was just wondering... I, uh, I was trying to remember something... and I thought maybe you could help me."

"You wanted to talk, I'm here," came Sonny's answer.

Ric smiled at his brother's arrogance. "Good, good. I just was thinking... it just seems eerie that this happened. I mean, wasn't... wasn't Alexis' mother murdered?"

Sonny's stomach clenched. "Yeah."

"Right in front of her, right?" Ric punctuated the words "in front" for Sonny's benefit.

"I, uh... yeah."

"I just think, you know, it seems pretty awful for this to have happened... in front of Kristina... after everything Alexis has done to try to make her daughter's life better than her own."

Sonny couldn't form a reply to that. His guilt was choking him.

"Anyway, like I said, David won't mention your name, so you're in the clear."

"Why, uh, why would he mention my name?" Sonny asked, wondering what Ric's point was here.

"Why indeed."

Ric stood then, and pushed the envelope that had sat there untouched toward Sonny. He knew what he was about to do was cruel, but he didn't care. Thoughts of his own wife and their child had mixed with the idea that his brother had directly targeted a woman and her little girl. Sonny had this coming.

"Well, you're free to go. I just thought maybe you'd like a souvenir."

Confused didn't begin to describe Sonny's state right then. Ric had dragged him down here to what? Was he expecting Sonny's guilt to drive him to a confession? Was he supposed to slip up? What?

His brother left him alone, and Sonny fingered the envelope. Tentatively, he opened it and shook it upside down to let the contents fall onto the table. He closed his eyes as he saw what it was, but his lids couldn't stop the moisture that instantly materialized from sliding down his cheeks as his trembling hands picked up what lay before him.

A little girl's sweater... pink with embroidered tulips on it... and blood. Her mother's blood.

*****

He eased his way into the hospital room, careful not to let anyone else see him. She wanted it that way, still. Their friendship would make very little sense to anyone, and until she was ready for it to be public knowledge, he would do as she asked.

But he had to see her.

Ever since his car had passed by the park and he'd seen Corinthos' man being arrested and Alexis put into the ambulance, Lorenzo had been desperate to get to her. It had meant waiting out her family and friends and looking for the perfect moment to slip past the staff, but finally he was here.

He slid into the chair beside her bed and took her hand in his.

"Alexis," he whispered. "I'm here. Kristina's with Nikolas, and she's fine. You protected her, just like you always do."

Lorenzo sighed and drew her hand up so he could press it against his cheek. It seemed so long ago that everything had clicked into place in his mind. Alexis and Sonny had been lovers, Alexis had a daughter she seemed overly terrified of losing, Alexis had been blackmailed by Carly... and finally, he had made the connections and confronted her.

[I]"Corinthos may not be able to do a simple math problem, but I can, Ms. Davis. He's Kristina's father, isn't he?"

She crumbled. He had never seen someone so absolutely overcome with panic in his life.

"Please, please, don't tell him. Please. I'll do whatever you want. I'll... oh, God, please, please don't tell him."[/I]

He'd gone there planning to use her secret to manipulate her in a variety of ways. He could use it to punish her for Luis, he could force her to help him keep Carly from Sonny, he could make her do his bidding as a lawyer. But something in her had struck at his heart as he watched her literally begging for her daughter's life.

He'd never imagined that this woman he had hated for so many months could touch him, but her love for her daughter had affected him. And he knew he could threaten all he wanted, but he wouldn't tell.

She hadn't believed him, of course. When he tried to tell her he wouldn't use her daughter against her, she had thought he was trying to trick her, and so when she told him flat out that she would represent him in exchange for him keeping the secret, Lorenzo had really had no choice but to accept. The only condition was that they could only have contact in private. She did not want to be publicly associated with him except on paper.

Their first few meetings had been tense ones, her not trusting him, and Lorenzo just not sure how to navigate this unexpected role he'd taken on as secret keeper. Then one day, Alexis had been nervously shuffling her papers and Lorenzo had reached out to try to help her, and their heads had literally crashed into one another.

When they finally finished laughing over their mutual awkwardness, the tension was finally broken, and they had slowly begun to feel more comfortable around one another.
But he hated that every time they saw each other, he had to restate again that he had no intention of telling Sonny the truth.

[I]"You hate Sonny, you've tried a hundred different ways to destroy him and his marriage to Carly. You're armed with the perfect weapon to do it now, since she knows the truth and has kept it from him, but you're not going to use it?"

"No," Lorenzo said, "I won't."

"Why?" Alexis asked, desperately trying to understand.

"I'm not really sure," he answered honestly. "Maybe I have a soft spot for curly-haired little girls. Maybe I like my new attorney too much to risk losing her services. And maybe... I admire the fact that you saw Sonny for what he was... and walked away."[/I]

The truth was, it was all of the above, but more and more, it was admiration of Alexis more than anything else that fueled his desire to protect her and Kristina. That, too, had helped him to finally put to rest his anger over his brother's death. Death... he no longer thought of it as murder anymore. Alexis had killed Luis, but she didn't have murder in her. He knew that now.

Shaking away thoughts of the recent past, Lorenzo lay Alexis' hand back down on the bed and then gently pushed the hair off her face.

"I'm sorry, Alexis. I should have known that coward would try to hurt you back. But I promise you, I'll make him pay for this. I'll make him pay in the very worst way I can imagine. I'll make him live with what he did."

He placed a kiss on her forehead before he stood up and, after checking the halls, snuck away to fulfill his promise.

*****

Sonny was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, an open bottle of booze beside him, the little sweater crumpled in his hand. Ric's words continued to ring in his ears as the full weight of what he'd set in motion today settled upon his shoulders.

Alexis had almost died... gunned down in front of her child... and it was his fault.

The monstrous nature of it was almost too much to fathom. And no matter how much he told himself that he hadn't meant for it to go this far, that this wasn't supposed to be the result, his guilt continued to grow.

And then the envelope brushed against the tile as it slid under the door. The quiet in the apartment made the slight noise seem like a loud burst of sound, and it drew Sonny's attention to it.

"Who's there?" he called out, but there was no answer.

Staggering, Sonny made his way to his feet and then over to the letter awaiting him. He picked it up and fumbled with the paper until he had it open.

There was a picture and a note inside.

It was a picture of Kristina Davis.

A new wave of nausea rolled through his stomach, and Sonny grabbed a chair to steady himself. Then he let himself look at the hand-written message that had come with the photo.

The last thing he would remember about that night was the sound of his own scream.

*****

Jason had been asleep when he heard Sonny cry out. He rushed across the hall, his disgust with his friend outweighed in that moment by fear.

It was fear well-justified.

He found Sonny sitting on the floor of the penthouse, his eyes staring straight ahead of him, and yet it appeared he saw nothing.

"Sonny? Sonny, what is it? Sonny?"

Jason checked him over quickly, wondering if someone had come in and physically injured him, but he found nothing. His next thought was to look around and his eyes quickly fell on the little pink sweater by the sofa. Jason rushed over and picked it up. The sight of blood on it told him whose it was.

Then he saw the piece of paper. Jason walked over and picked it up.

"You almost killed your daughter's mother today. And if you think this is a lie, ask your wife. Carly's known the truth for months."

Everything that had transpired since Carly and Sonny had separated began to click into place for Jason in that moment. They had all known Carly was holding something over Alexis' head to get her help in court, and now... God, now all of it made sense... Alexis' attacks on Sonny, her determination to make him look as bad as possible...

It had been about Kristina all along.

"Sonny? Sonny?" Jason called out again, returning to his friend, but there was still no response.

He tried everything he had done in the past to get through to Sonny when his emotional stability had been pushed to the breaking point. But soon enough, it became clear to Jason that this time was very, very different.

This time, he wasn't sure Sonny was coming back.

*****

"If you're angry with me, Alexis, you can say so. I can take it."

Lorenzo sat on the edge of her hospital bed, her hand in his. He'd told her everything now that she was stronger and officially out danger.

"I never wanted to use Kristina to hurt him," she said quietly.

"You didn't. I did. Because he used her to hurt you."

Moisture brimmed at her lower lids as she looked up at him in the moonlit room, his visit coming well after the official visitor hours had ended.

"He really... he really sent that man to..."

"Yes. Ric Lansing told me as much. But Sonny's man won't turn on him, you know that. There was only one way to truly mete out justice here, at least only one way I could see."

Alexis nodded. "How bad is he?"

"He had a complete nervous breakdown. Jason checked him into the hospital. A doctor, um, Baldwin... Gail Baldwin is taking care of him."

She continued to fight back tears, but she hadn't taken her hand away, hadn't chastised him for, in effect, changing her life.

"She's a good doctor," Alexis offered. "Maybe she can finally give him the help he needs."

"Maybe," Lorenzo said, trying to reassure her because he knew, even now, she could not hate the man who had fathered her child.

"What, um, what about Carly?"

His eyebrows raised a moment at the mention of the woman who had played such a dramatic part in both their lives. "Jason's cut her off completely. She's not allowed near Sonny. He blames her for keeping the secret."

"So he must blame me to," Alexis said, a little sadly.

Lorenzo wondered if he should share what he'd learned, and decided that having told her the truth so far, he would continue to do so.

"Jason apparently went off on Sonny when he found out about the setup. He didn't know anything about it until afterwards, and he was furious. I think he blames himself far more than you."

Alexis nodded again. "So... he knows. I mean, even though he's sick right now, on some level, Sonny knows about her."

"Yes."

He waited, knowing he could have just cost himself her friendship and whatever else they might have by his actions, but he felt he had done right by her, even if she didn't agree. There had only been one way to make Sonny see how wrong he had been, and that was the truth.

"His illness will be on record now, I guess, and I could at least imply he did this to me... if he ever tried... "

Her voice faded out, the possibility too much for her to imagine right now. Lorenzo moved closer, his hand brushing gently against her cheek.

"What matters now is that you get well and get home to Kristina, and also that you enjoy Carly having lost her hold over you. Whatever else comes of this, you're free of her."

Alexis chuckled slightly, but the small laugh was bittersweet. "Looks like we all lost, didn't we? Kristina was exposed to his life anyway because she saw this..." she motioned with her hand toward her wounded abdomen. "Sonny's finally gone over the edge, and I doubt he will ever forgive Carly for not telling him."

"That's one way to look at it," Lorenzo said. "Or you could look at it as the playing field finally being level, no one having any more power over anyone else in the game."

She smiled. "That's an interesting point. "

Relieved to see that she was handling all that had happened, he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. "And now, I should let you get some sleep."

He started to rise, but her grip on his hand tightened, and so he stilled.

"Would you... would you mind staying?"

Lorenzo didn't mind at all.

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