It
was the longest drive of Sonny's life. Hours and hours alone in
the car with Alexis, and she had emerged triumphant from her final
encounter with Helena -- he would've thought they'd talk, quite
a lot, about what they'd just been through. Not just with Helena,
but what they'd told each other about their feelings in their hideout.
They'd made wildly passionate love to each other. Sonny felt like
an explosion was going off an inch beneath his skin every time he
even thought about the things they had done together that night.
Now that they were free of Helena's shadow, didn't the question
of their future merit discussion?
Apparently not. Alexis wasn't even in the passenger seat. After
she and Sonny had alerted the local police about their violent confrontation
with Helena, and after they'd spent hours filing a report at the
police station, when they were finally told they could go, Alexis
simply clambered in the back seat and lay down and stayed absolutely,
resolutely silent.
He understood that sometimes events were just too big for words.
Alexis had just faced her greatest fear -- the woman who had killed
her mother, brother, and nephew, and who had terrorized Alexis since
she was ten years old -- and Alexis had emerged victorious. It was
definitely going to impact Alexis emotionally and psychologically
for years to come. So Sonny guessed it was just his own usual selfishness
that he wanted Alexis to tell him what he meant to her, and whether
or not they had a future together. He forced himself to stay quiet
on the subject and give her time and space. He knew he'd have to
grow up if he wanted a real chance with Alexis. *May as well start
the growing up now*, he thought to himself as he drove along the
dark roads.
When they passed the "Welcome to Port Charles" sign, Alexis
cleared her throat and sat up in the back seat. "Could you
take me to Felicia's house, please? I need to pick up Kristina."
"Of course," Sonny said. Even though it was four o'clock
in the morning, Sonny knew Felicia would be waiting up for Alexis.
But something in Alexis' tone worried him. She sounded so cool and
polite, and it wasn't just the fact that she was probably half in
shock. It sounded just like the way she'd typically addressed him
over the last three years: as if he were no more than a passingly
familiar acquaintance.
When they were just a few blocks from Felicia's house, Sonny pulled
the car over. Turning to face Alexis, he asked in a hesitant, almost
shy voice, "Can...Can I join you in the back seat for five
minutes, just to talk?"
Alexis didn't have her usual deer-in-headlights look. She calmly
answered, "Sure. Let's talk," which made Sonny feel even
more uneasy.
Sonny exited the driver's seat and climbed into the back seat next
to Alexis. He was desperate for a chance to try with her; he was
ready to give her a list of reasons why she should let him back
into her life. But Alexis surprised him by opening the conversation.
"Sonny, I have two things to say. Will you hear me out before
you start with...whatever it is you want to tell me?"
Sonny braced himself for what she was about to tell him. "Yeah.
Go ahead."
"Okay. The first thing is: I think I love you."
Sonny grinned broadly.
"And the second thing is," Alexis continued, "that
I can't let you near me or Kristina unless you change your life."
Sonny stopped smiling. "Change my life?"
"You know what I mean. Your business, your business associates.
I can't allow you to play a part in Kristina's life until you're
completely legitimate and safe, and you can promise me that whenever
she's with you, she'll be absolutely safe." Sonny nodded. Of
course he could have guessed Alexis would say that.
"What about you and me? What can I do to convince you that
you'll be safe with me?" he asked hopefully.
Alexis stared at him for a moment. She knew he didn't mean just
physically safe, but emotionally, too. "Sonny, as deeply as
I feel for you, I can't allow myself to open up with you until I'm
positive that you and Carly are over. I'm doing okay on my own.
I don't need to complicate my life by being in some sort of draining
and complicated triangle right now."
Sonny gave her a sort of wistful half-smile. She looked at him quizzically.
"I've never seen that expression on you before. What does it
mean?" she asked.
"It's hope tempered by reason," he sighed. "I know
what you're asking me to do, and I can do it. And I will do it,
Alexis," he said, grasping her hand with his and squeezing
it. "I promise you. You and Kristina are the family I want.
But what you're asking....It won't be easy. It'll take a lot of
work and time."
Alexis squeezed his hand back. "I know."
"Will you wait for me? Give me six months?"
Alexis let out a small laugh. "It's not as if I'm going to
fall in love with someone else in the next six months."
Sonny shrugged. "Oh, you never know when a tall, dark, and
handsome psychiatrist might come into the picture to sweep you off
your feet." They both chuckled lightly at that. "So you
will wait."
"Call me in six months," Alexis said. Sonny pulled her
by her hand closer to him, and put his other hand on her face. He
gently brushed the bangs off her foreheard and traced her cheek
with his fingertips. He was trying to burn the memory of her face,
looking at him with such naked emotion, into his brain to last him
for the next half year. He leaned towards her carefully and kissed
her slowly. Neither of them let the kiss go too deep -- they both
knew what they were capable of doing together in the back seat of
a car at four-thirty in the morning -- but they both made it linger
sweetly.
Finally, they separated. Sonny got back into the driver's seat,
picked up Kristina from Felicia's house, and drove Alexis and his
daughter back to Alexis' apartment. "Merry Christmas,"
Alexis said as she and Kristina left the car.
"It'll be a Happy New Year, next year," Sonny replied.
It was the last time they spoke for six months.
****
(Six Months Later)
Sonny Corinthos and Alexis Davis looked, to all the world, like
virtual strangers. They never spoke to each other or sought each
other out. They had stopped periodically attacking each other in
public, but that didn't make anyone ask questions about their relationship.
No one noticed the way they looked at each other a little too long
when they were in the same room. No one noticed the covert smiles
Sonny sent Alexis' way when they were at Kelly's at the same time.
No one noticed how he would brush ever-so-slightly against her if
he passed her on the street, or the way she would blush afterwards.
So it came as a surprise to all of Port Charles when they heard
what happened between them in late June of that year. But they never
heard all the details.
The details are these: Alexis came home one evening to find an unmarked
envelope had been slipped under her door. She opened the envelope
and found two tickets to the ballet for the matinee performance
at the Arts Center the following afternoon. Alexis glanced at her
wall calendar. It was almost exactly six months since the night
they'd returned from New Hampshire. The night he'd asked her to
wait for him to change his life.
The next day, Sonny waited impatiently in the lobby of the Arts
Center. The ballet was starting in twenty minutes, and he and Alexis
had a lot to discuss before they went into the theatre. If Alexis
showed up at all. His greatest fear was that she'd changed her mind
about him. What if she wouldn't give him a chance? What if she decided
she would always be too good for someone like him? What if she couldn't
forgive him for his past crimes? What if she'd found someone else,
someone better, to love? But no, he'd listened very carefully for
signs of that for half a year. He might lose Alexis, but he'd have
the small consolation that he wouldn't lose her to another man.
Just then, Alexis walked in. She was dressed in a short skirt and
matching suit jacket. She looked very prim and proper. To others
she might look severe -- doubtless that was her intention -- but
the colder she tried to appear, the more he wanted to take her to
bed and make her melt for him.
She approached him confidently and asked very straightforwardly,
"Do you have the evidence?" As if they were discussing
a legal matter.
"Evidence?" Sonny repeated, feeling like he was in the
dark but loving the sight and sound of her.
"Yes. You know. The evidence of the, um, transformation we
discussed late last year. I hope you're aware that I'm going to
need proof." She spoke in her lawyer-voice, but he saw the
twinkle in her eye. She trusted him to have kept his word. She just
wanted to hear how he did it.
"Well, let's start with this." Sonny handed Alexis a sheaf
of legal documents.
"Hmm, okay," she said as she flipped through the pages.
"You've turned over all your business interests to Jason Morgan."
"And take a look at these," Sonny said, giving her a few
more manila folders.
"You've created a $10 million trust for Michael, and a $10
million trust for Kristina," Alexis said as she speed-read
the documents. She looked up at Sonny. "You didn't have to
do this for Kristina. Now that she's the only Cassadine heir, she
won't ever lack for money."
"I know," Sonny said, "but that's the last of my
money, and I wanted to make sure the kids got it. I gave everything
else to Carly, for this..." He handed Alexis a blue-backed
piece of paper.
She knew what it was at a glance. "A divorce decree. You did
it?" She could hardly believe it. "You left Carly?"
"I left her right after Christmas last year. But it takes a
while to make a divorce official, you know?"
"So you turned over all your liquid assets to her?"
"Everything that didn't go to Michael and Kristina. Oh, and
I set a few million aside for this." Sonny handed her the last
folder he was holding.
Alexis looked at the final document. "Oh my God. Sonny, you
didn't."
He laughed. "I sure did."
"A Cuban restaurant on the waterfront??! Named 'Natasha'? Sonny,
what kind of Cuban restuarant has a Russian name?"
"The one named after my beautiful new wife," Sonny replied,
his smile fading away as he pulled out his final show-and-tell piece:
a small black box.
Alexis looked at the box sitting in the palm of his hand and then
looked at Sonny's anxious gaze. When she didn't take it right away,
Sonny began to fidget.
"Okay, what are you thinking?" he managed to ask.
"Sonny, you've done everything I could have asked and more.
I would love to take that ring." She paused.
"But...?" Sonny prompted, having failed to get rid of
all his impatience.
"But we still have a lot to work through. You'll have to work
out shared custody with Carly for Michael..."
"...and you'll have to make sure Ned accepts me as Kristina's
father."
"Yes. There's still a lot that could go wrong," Alexis
said, her eyes filled with worry.
"I know that. And some of it will go wrong. But most of it
will go very, very right," Sonny said, sounding completely
sure of himself.
"How can you know that?" Alexis asked, wanting to believe
but still feeling fear crowd in at the edges of her heart.
"Because with every breath I take for the rest of my life,
I'm going to love you more and more. That's all I need to know to
be sure about this," Sonny said, looking down at the ring box
in his hand. Then he looked in her eyes very intently and said,
"Now, if you can say honestly that you feel the same about
me --"
"I do," Alexis said honestly. She looked at the ring box.
"And, I will. I will, Sonny."
He solemnly took the ring out of its box. Its gem was a rectangular
emerald encrusted with tiny diamonds. "I love you, Alexis,"
he whispered as he put the ring on Alexis' finger, then kissed her
long and hard.
She was breathless when he drew back from the kiss. He was anxious
to continue their kiss and celebrate their engagement -- preferably
in bed. "Can I get you someplace where you're wearing, you
know, nothing but the ring?" he whispered seductively in her
ear, kissing her gently there.
"Yes," she said, pulling back a little, tears of happiness
making her eyes shine like the jewels on her finger and smiling
a smile that glowed brighter than all the precious stones in the
world. "But right now we have to go on our first date -- to
the ballet."
