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The
Quiet Before the Storm Part 9 “Alexis! Alexis! Let me in. It’s ok.” Nervously opening the door she lays eyes on the man she hasn’t spoken to in months. Part of her was glad to see him. The urge to jump into his arms was greater than she had realized. But her guard was held firmly intact. She refrained from reaching out and touching him in any way. To see any living soul out here would do, she told herself. “Now you’re lying to yourself,” her inner voice told her. “Admit it! You’re not all that upset at seeing him. But I sure as hell won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that.” Putting on her best-exasperated face, she finally spoke. “Sonny, what are you doing here?” Breezing past her on his way into the house he distractedly searches for any dangers that could be laying within, ignoring her question which just seemed to infuriate her even more. Watching him scurry around the house, her curiosity gets the best of her as she tried to once again get his attention. “Sonny?…Sonny. Sonny!” she yells, finally gripping his arm enough to get his attention. “What are you doing here? How did you know I’d be here?” “Alexis, never mind that. I’m here now. Are you alright?” he asks while feverishly searching her face and body with his hands for any bruises or cuts. Any sign that she has been hurt. “Sonny…Sonny stop! What are you doing?” she asks smacking his hands away, bringing her arms up around herself as if they could protect her. His touch still had a profound effect on her, even if she had only really fully experienced it for one night a year ago. Seeing her uneasiness he finally took a moment to stand still and really look at her. She was far too calm right now. The woman he saw standing before him was a total contrast to the distress filled voice of the woman who had called him earlier, pleading for his help. He needed answers and he needed them now. “Alexis, what’s wrong? Has someone hurt you? Tell me. What’s wrong?” “Would you calm down? You’d think this were a life and death situation! I’m just stuck out here in a rainstorm! I think I’m old enough to survive it without breaking!” “A rain storm? What are you talking about? I thought you were in trouble.” “Well if being out in the middle of nowhere, alone in a creepy house isn’t bad enough I don’t know what is!” she replied sarcastically. With a look of defeat, Sonny takes a seat on the couch, as he tries to get his bearings together as well as his lungs reinflated. That jog through the rain really took it out of him. “Ok, wait a minute. Just wait a minute Alexis. I need some solid answers here. You called me asking for my help like it was a matter of life or death. I nearly killed myself getting here and you act like your ungrateful that I’m here. What’s with you?” “Me? Ask you for help? That’s rich! Sorry Sonny. Thought you’d play the white knight card now?” “Alexis, what are you talking…” “Is this about Carly? It is isn’t it! I’m so sick of you two and your twisted games!” “What games? Alexis, please…please! Will you just sit down? Your pacing is making me nervous.” Ignoring him she continues to pace. “I’m making YOU nervous?” she asked. Throwing her hands wildly into the air. “I just woke up in a creepy old house all by myself, caught in a rainstorm no less! After having to deal with your wife I didn’t think this night could get worse. I guess I was wrong!” “You saw Carly tonight? Is that what’s gotten you so upset?” Pacing the room Sonny can see that she was now out of breath. Patting the seat cushion next to him he beckons her to join him. “Alexis, here. Sit down. Just breathe. I won’t bite. Tell me what’s going on.” The calm and caring timber in his voice stopped her in her tracks as she stares at him, wondering what could have happened to bring out this decidedly gentler side of him that she hasn’t seen in months. “Maybe I have nothing to worry about just yet. He seems genuine about not knowing I saw Carly tonight. I can only hope that means that she didn’t spill the beans about who Kristina’s father is. I can only hope,” she thought. With another questioning look in her eye she decides to finally take a seat on the opposite end of the couch; a tactful move that shows him that she still isn’t quite comfortable in his presence at the moment. “Yes, I saw Carly tonight.” “Did she do something to upset you?” “Doesn’t she always Sonny? Besides, why do you care? I thought the infallible Mrs. Corinthos couldn’t upset a fly? From the way you’re questioning me I would almost think you actually cared a little if she did.” “So, she doesn’t think I care” he thought to himself. “ Well, I guess I haven’t exactly shown her any proof over the last few months to make her think I do care. At least not anything that she would know about.” Looking down at her hands she tries to piece together what her plan of action is. “What am I going to do about getting myself out of this house and away from this man? I can handle being out here alone, but being here with him is so much worse! I can’t stay!” Being this close to him only added to her already shaky nerves. “Alexis, whether you believe it or not I actually do care what she does to you. You’ve had enough stress lately and she doesn’t need to be adding to that. Besides, Carly is no longer apart of my life. And I’m all the better for it too.” “Yeah right,” she added flippantly. “Really! The only contact we’ve had in weeks has been when she drops Michael off for the weekend.” ‘What are you talking about Sonny? Have you and Carly had another fight again?” she asked sarcastically. ‘Well let me put your mind at rest. She’ll do something to lour you back in and you’ll forgive her like you always do. Don’t worry, you’ll have more pressing matters to attend to than me soon enough. Lord knows that woman is a handful. I give it a week tops. By then your life will go back to the way you want. With the life you want and the woman you want.” His mind started to wander at her observation of him. “She has no idea what I want, let alone who I want or what I need. But then again I guess we haven’t had a decent conversation in a very long time for her to even know. I guess I can take the blame for that.” “Alexis, whether you care or not I want you to know that that’s not going to happen. We are way past the breakup-makeup stage.” “What makes this time so different from the other times? Did she lie to you? Did she cheat on you? Did she betray you? Hasn’t she done all of those things in the past? Oh I know! Maybe she did all three.” “Actually, she didn’t do any of those things. Not this time anyway.” As
Sonny stopped talking he noticed how Alexis’ body language
had changed all of a sudden. As if she wasn’t merely ticked
off or uninterested anymore, but acted as if she actually cared
about the outcome of the story. Or maybe it was his own wishful
thinking. “It’s weird,” he said with a half-hearted laugh. I always thought that if me and Carly ever broke up that it would be because of some major betrayal, and it wasn’t like that at all. I mean, of course after I made the decision that we were through I found out some things that I didn’t like, but they weren’t apart of the reason I let her go. One day I decided to help an old friend and she didn’t like it. She couldn’t understand why helping that person was so important to me because she has always felt that if she feels that person is unworthy, then ultimately they don’t matter.” Smiling a devilish smile at Alexis he continued on. “I guess the part she really had a problem with was that that friend happened to be a woman. A woman apart of my past. And she just couldn’t understand why I had to do it. I mean I have no problem when she buts into Jason’s life, because I know they are friends, and she loves him. But she just gets so crazy when it comes to me doing anything for any woman other than her or my sister.” Smiling a half smile of her own she added, “And you just now figured that out Sonny?” “Okay, Okay. I know,” he said as he held his hands up in mock surrender. “It’s just that, I couldn’t believe that she’d be so uncaring about the situation that person was in. I realized that Carly didn’t care about what happened to anyone unless it involved someone she cared about. To be that self-centered made me start to think. Really think about the kind of person I was living with. I realized that I had a tendency to abandon a lot of what I value when I’m with her. She never disagrees with anything I do that might be construed as wrong, as long as she’s okay with it. And that usually doesn’t amount to a lot. As long as I make her happy and keep her ‘family’ intact, she doesn’t care what I do.” “I would think that would make you happy Sonny.” “Why would you say that?” “Well, from what I can see, in your line of business it’s best if you are married to someone who doesn’t question your decisions all the time, no matter how bad they are.” “That would have been true for me years ago. But within the last few months I’ve realized that I don’t want to spend my life with someone who totally disregards the truth, or the lives of others. I can be down right ugly at times and if no one questions me, then what will I become? The monster that everyone in Port Charles says I am?” “Well Sonny, I really never thought you put too much stock into what anyone in this town really thought of you.” Looking down at his lap he took in the weight of her words. “You’d be surprised how much I do care.” Seeing and hearing the sincerity in his eyes and voice she actually started to feel a little less tense, and also a little bit ashamed. Over the past year she had repeatedly called him names and said things about him that she knew would hurt him. At the time she felt justified by her actions from all that she had been though. But right now, seeing the look on his face she regretted every word. “He still has feelings,” she told herself. “He can still hurt. You just forgot that for a while.” A feeling of déja-vu came over her. It felt like she was once again in the presence of her long ago friend Sonny. The one who was open and honest, without hidden agendas or someone who used semantics to dodge uncomfortable questions. Someone she hadn’t spoken to in quite a while. “Once upon a time I thought that I did know how much you cared. But this past year has proved me wrong in more ways than one,” she said. With these words Sonny watched the slight smile that had graced her beautiful face for a moment leave as quickly as it came, to be replaced by the look he had seen on her face for months now. “Alexis, you’re not wrong. You did know how much I cared. I just let myself get off track for a while. With all the things that have happened to me over the last year it has changed me. It has changed me in a lot of ways…ways that I am both ashamed of, and proud of too.” Looking
into his eyes, she finally asked him what she was thinking. “She has a lot to do with my new perspective…whether she knows it or not. Everything that I have done lately has been done to prove to myself that her belief in me was not misplaced. She taught me that I could change my life. I could be a better person, a better man. She taught me that I could live a happy life. That I actually deserved one. One without fear or danger or ugliness. I could lead a life that I could be proud of. And even if she’s never apart of my life again, I’ll always be grateful for that. I’ll always be grateful for her. Looking into her eyes he spoke directly to her heart. “I’ll always be grateful to you.” “Me?…Me? You’ll always be grateful to me?” Alexis stuttered while gripping a hand to her chest, her heart pounding away a mile a minute. “Yes you Alexis. It’s always been about you.” His words seemed to replay in her mind over and over as she tried to figure out if she had heard him right, or if she was dreaming. “…It’s always been about you.” “What are you talking about Sonny? Are you saying that you helped me in some way? That you’re grateful to me?” Shaking her head she tried to make some sense of what he had just said to her. “Could it be true? Is that what Carly was talking about earlier?” Searching his eyes she asked him again. “What did you do?” Not wanting to lie to her he prepared to tell her the truth. She may get mad at him but he knew that enough people had been less than truthful with her in her life. He too knew what it was like when people were less than honest with him, and he didn’t like it one bit. Now wasn’t the time to be evasive. He had to lay it all out on the table. “Alexis, I have a lot to tell you. I’ve been waiting to find the right moment to talk to you, but it never seemed like the right time before now. We have a lot to discuss, and I guess now is as good a time as any to do it. Besides, we have nowhere else to go. We’re going to be here for a while; we might as make the most of it.” The tone in his voice told her that she probably wasn’t going to like what she would hear. But she had done enough running as it was. “Maybe that’s the reason why ‘Kristina’ brought me here. She knew this was a place I couldn’t run from. A man I couldn’t run from. She’s always claimed to others to want to help me and protect me, and she’s done a pretty good job of it so far, besides the fact that she killed a man to do it. If she’s that committed to helping me then why should I question her motives now? I guess I’ll have to face this one on my own. I can do it. I can get through this. I have to quit hiding behind her and let her go at sometime. That’s the only way this whole mess will go away.” Shoring up her inner reserves she hugged herself as a shiver ran through her from the cold and also from the enormity of the task ahead. Looking him in the eye she plainly spoke one word. “Okay.” Seeing that she was still on board with him he stood up from the couch, moving about the room. “Well, before we begin, we need to take care of first things first.” Seeing him disappear from the room she wondered what first things first could possibly be. When he returned to the room her question was answered when he reappeared, carrying a stack of thick blankets. Moving towards the couch he dropped all but one of them onto the cushions as he approached her to wrap her in its warmth. Seeing her visibly jump at his closeness he quelled her fears by smiling sweetly at her, letting her know it was ok as he gently draped the blanket around her shoulders. Pulling the blanket around herself she relaxed a little, grateful that he had thought to do this and happy to know that he cared. She watched on in silence as he moved to the fireplace, stopping only to remove a book of matches from the mantle before stooping down to rearrange the logs in an attempt to build a fire. Picking up the book of matches from the floor, he pulled a single stick match from the box. Striking it alongside the box as it ignited itself. It brightened the dark room for a moment before he threw it onto the logs as they slowly heated and burned. Moving away from the fireplace Sonny once more walked towards the couch to retrieve the extra blankets. Unfolding each one he spread them out on the floor a few feet away from the fire, and retrieved a few of the crimson colored pillows from the couch and placed them on the floor in a pallet of sorts. Moving to take a seat on the floor Sonny removed his shoes and socks. When he started to take off his soaked jacket and began to unbutton and remove his shirt, he didn’t notice the intake of breath from Alexis, nor its slow release. Not until he started to unbuckle his pants did he think about what he was doing until he heard her clear her throat in an uncomfortable sort of way. Looking away from him, her mind started to reel with unedited thoughts caused by the feelings his current unclothed state put her in. “My God! This is the last thing I need. To be trapped alone out in the middle of nowhere with a half naked Sonny. This is going to be one long night.” Seeing her discomfort he decided to leave his pants on. The way he had been dreaming about her lately didn’t give him too much confidence that he could hide his emotions very well in just a pair of black silk boxers. Alexis, thanking the gods above could only breathe a sigh of relief to see that he had decided to keep his pants on. She didn’t need any more distractions tonight. She needed answers, and that’s what she intended to get. Bringing her out of her thoughts he looked at her and gestured with his hands towards the pallet. “Well, aren’t you going to join me?”
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