A Drunken Man's Words
by SexisFan

chapter 2

Morning did not come lightly to Sonny Corinthos this day. In fact, morning did not come at all. It was not the soft, gray call of dawn but the harsh white glare of afternoon that pried at his lids, nudging him painfully into consciousness. Sonny winced at the assault of sunlight and tried squinting his eyes tighter to close out the intruder. Bad move, he realized, as the exertion required to simply wrinkle his brow brought stabbing waves of pain screaming toward his brain. 'Oh, God,' he thought as he lay motionless as possible on his back, 'just let me die.' Surely hell would not be as painful as this hangover.

Sonny lay sprawled for quite some time on the sofa, hovering between life and a wish for death. If only he could slip back into the black void of unconsciousness and reawaken in a day or two, when his head wouldn't weigh twice as much as his body and his brain wouldn't be trying to seep out through his ears. Maybe if he just stayed there long enough without moving, he could find his way back to oblivion. Drawing an arm up over his eyes, he buried his face into the crook of his arm, blocking out the brightness of the day. What he couldn't block out, though, was the faint scent of a familiar fragrance that somehow found its way through the foul fog of whisky on his breath. The scent was light and playful, tickling at his memory with images of laughter. Images of smiles. Images of dimples. Images of. . .

"Alexis!" Her name passed his lips and echoed through the empty apartment. Or maybe it was just echoing through his pounding head. It was hard to tell. But since he didn't have the strength to speak above a raspy whisper, the echoes were more likely in his own head.

Alexis. It was her perfume he wore. And not just on his sleeve but all over his shirt, he realized as his nose followed the fragrant trail. Alexis was all over him. 'Or I was all over her,' he thought sarcastically, an entertaining image flashing through his brain. The chuckle at his own humor was choked off, though, as his joke to himself set off a kaleidoscopic series of shifting, distorted and disjointed images of Alexis. There were hands. A slap. Pain. Her face in the glow of firelight. Her eyes blazing with anger. Her eyes wide in surprise. Her eyes smoldering with. . .something. There was her face floating above his. There was gasping for air and Alexis looking. . .what? Scared? Worried?

"Oh, my God," he moaned. What had he done?

The nausea welling up within pushed him to right himself. He was going to be sick, no doubt about it. But it was only partly because of the alcohol he knew, as he stumbled over broken glass toward the bathroom.

Alexis. What had he done to Alexis?

Purged of the contents of his stomach, but not of his sense of guilt, Sonny shuffled back into the living room. He knew that he should press his brain make sense out of the swirling images of Alexis, but he feared the picture he might see if he did. He'd been angry. He'd been hurt. He'd been lonely. Add drunk to a hurt, angry and lonely Sonny and it couldn't have been a good thing for his friendship with Alexis. Obviously there had been some temper, the smashed glass was proof enough of that. And that vague recollection of Alexis slapping him. Or was he remembering another time, a past slap? Had there been another slap last night? Or was he simply confused? Maybe he could just avoid her for the rest of his life. Then he wouldn't have to try to answer any of the hard questions. Yeah, that's right Sonny, he chided himself, be a coward.

Coward. The word rang in his brain, eliciting a visceral reaction. Something about last night? Coward. Had Alexis called him a coward? Why would she?

Sonny rubbed his temples firmly. Thinking was just too much effort yet. Still, he had to do something. Obviously Alexis had been here and something had happened between them. And he needed to find out what that something was so he could make it up to her, if he needed to. And he probably needed to.

Reaching the front door, he swung it open slowly, wincing at the squeak of the hinges. Outside the door stood Max, point man for the day.

"Alexis?" Sonny mumbled.

"P. C. Grille," answered Max simply.

"Alone?"

Max shook his head. Of course, not, Sonny thought. Why would she be alone?

"Who?"

Max shrugged. "Some guy. New one, not the lawyer," he explained.

Sonny scowled and disappeared back into the penthouse, letting the door swing too firmly shut behind him. The loud clap of the door slamming shut caused Max to flinch. But judging from the boss's hangover, the sound had done a lot more damage to Sonny. Max shook his head ruefully. Maybe Johnny was right after all.

Watching Ms. Davis had become part of the regular routine in recent months. The guys in the field kept tabs on her comings and goings, reporting to the point man so that any time Sonny inquired he could be told exactly where she was, whom she was with, and what she was doing if possible. At first it seemed like Sonny was just being careful after the Roscoe situation. But things had been quiet for a while now, yet they still watched Alexis closely. Johnny said it was more personal than business. Max had had no ideas about that, but Johnny seemed to know more about such things when it came to the boss.

Sonny and his lady lawyer. Max smiled and shook his head again. The boss sure didn't live life making anything easy on himself.

********

Sonny strolled into the PC Grille looking much more put together than he actually felt. Heading straight for the bar, he casually glanced into the dining room, his eyes immediately succeeding in picking out Alexis Davis. Seating himself at the bar, he continued to watch her. She sat with her back mostly to him, her companion seated close to her side and also turned away from Sonny's intense scrutiny. The two of them seemed to be in animated conversation while looking as something before them on the table. Sonny's stomach knotted as he watched Alexis look up and smile brightly at the man seated so close to her. He couldn't make the guy out completely, but he could tell that the man was one women would find attractive. That wouldn't normally be enough to make Sonny jealous of another man. But since the woman sitting so close to this attractive man was Alexis, Sonny hated the guy already.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Corinthos. What can I get you?"

Sonny turned his head toward the bartender in answer to his greeting. Glancing at the bottles lined across the back of the bar, Sonny fought down the urge to empty his stomach again. Raising his hand to wave off the offer of a drink, Sonny nodded toward the dining room.

"Her server," he stated, knowing that his meaning was clear.

The bartender nodded and disappeared swiftly. In no time, he was back behind the bar and a waiter had appeared at Sonny's side. Sonny looked up and nodded in greeting.

"Tommy," he acknowledged the waiter. "Who is it?"

Tommy knew the drill. They all did. Usually it was one of Sonny's guys wanting to know whom Alexis Davis was with and what they were talking about. But once in a while it was Sonny Corinthos himself. Tommy felt kind of bad for Ms. Davis, having her privacy taken from her and she didn't even know it. He kind of wished she'd go to another restaurant, as much as he liked her as a customer. But that probably wasn't an answer, either. Surely Sonny's men would follow her wherever she went, and the wait staff there would be enlisted as eyes and ears, just he and his co-workers had been. Tommy sighed and finally answered.

"She calls him Peter. They're looking at some kind of brochures and talking about views and bedrooms." Tommy saw the dark cloud of emotion pass over Sonny's features. He sure wouldn't want to be Peter at this particular moment.

"Thanks," Sonny ground out through clenched teeth. The mobster nodded toward Max and Tommy knew that it would be the bodyguard who would pass him his 'tip' in return for the information just provided.

Having dismissed the waiter, Sonny rose from the bar and strode into the dining room with a practiced air of nonchalance. Nearing the table where Alexis and Peter sat huddled, their heads bent close together, Sonny had to force his hands open from the fists they automatically wanted to form in his pockets. He had to be cool, had to appear to just run into Alexis by accident.

Passing their table, Sonny stopped suddenly, as if surprised to see Alexis there, lunching with a companion.

"Hey!" he grinned and greeted her warmly, determined to ignore any hazy images of the drunken night before. "How're you doing?"

Alexis' head snapped up in utter surprise, her breath catching in her throat as she found herself looking into Sonny's warm brown eyes. The last time she had seen those eyes, she had been close enough to feel his breath against her mouth. The memory triggered an instinctive lick of her lower lip as she recalled the electricity she felt when he'd claimed her mouth earlier that morning.

Immediately Sonny's attention was drawn to the tip of Alexis' tongue darting out and sweeping across her full, rosy lips. Coward. The charge rang in his mind. It had his heart racing and his breathing ragged. But what did it mean? And what did it have to do with the expression on Alexis' face? She'd dropped her gaze from his as if it pained her to even look at him. Sonny tried to cover the twinge of pain he felt at that thought.

"You planning a trip?" he asked lightly, smiling down at her and nodding toward the stack of glossy, colorful brochures.

Alexis automatically reached out to gather the brochures up, drawing them away from his inspection.

"I might be," Alexis offered a non-committal reply.

"And where might you be going?" Sonny didn't like the feel of this. Something was terribly off and it was surely his fault. If only he could remember last night.

"I haven't decided, yet," she responded a little too airily.

Alexis' luncheon companion silently observed the exchange, realizing that below the superficial facade, there was an undercurrent charged with deep emotional intensity on both sides.

"Will you be gone long?" Was she really planning a trip? Or were they 'not' talking about something else?

"In a way," Alexis replied enigmatically.

"What does that mean?" Sonny asked with an edge to his tone.

Alexis took a deep breath. "It means," she replied, looking up into Sonny's curious eyes, "that I'm moving."

chapter 3