The Convenient Wife
by Kelly

chapter 44

Alexis could take the silence no longer. They had lain together
listening to the sound of each other's breathing for long agonizing
minutes. Both seemed on the verge of speech. Neither seemed to know
what precisely to say.

She bit her lip, her face flaming at the uninhibited way she'd
responded to him just now. His silence made her ashamed of her sexual
abandon. She leapt from the bed abruptly and reached for her robe,
wrapping it around her body in jerky movements. She fully intended to
take a long hot shower, to wash away the scent of his skin that was
clinging to her. She wished it were as easy to wash away the memories
they'd shared.

She was so wrapped up in her morbid thoughts that she didn't hear the
front door of the apartment open. But she did however hear the
piercing cries of her daughter. The child was wailing as if in
terrible pain. Her heart dropped.

"Kristina?" she called, and without thought to Sonny's state of
undress Alexis wrenched open the bedroom door and ran out into the
living room to seek out her child.

She felt Sonny behind her a few moments later; apparently he'd
grabbed a robe himself. But judging from the reddish purple shade of
Alice's cheeks, he hadn't covered up quite in time to preserve his
modesty.

Alexis could care less about that; she was too busy gathering the
wailing little toddler into her arms. "What happened, baby?" she
asked, her eyes checking the tiny form for injuries. Kristina could
only hiccup a reply.

"Poor little thing fell in the park and scraped her knee," Alice
explained, sympathetically stroking Krissy's curls. "It doesn't look
bad. Just a scrape, which I cleaned and bandaged while we were still
out there. But sometimes Nanny just won't do."

Alexis face creased into a sympathetic smile as she rubbed the
child's back in soothing circles. "Aw, did my baby need her Mama to
kiss it and make it better?"

Alice suddenly wore an awkward expression. "Ah, actually, Kristina
wanted her…uhm, your husband. She's been asking for him since she
fell."

Sure enough, the little girl who had been cuddled in her mother's
familiar embrace now reached out an arm towards Sonny. With a look of
awe and unmistakable affection, Sonny took his child into his arms.

Alexis' chest squeezed painfully as she watched the beauty of the
moment unfolding in front of her. The moment she'd denied him for so
long. There would be no need to tell her child who this man was to
her. Kristina's heart had already told her the truth. Inevitable
tears welled in Alexis' eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks.

"I'll just go put the baby's things away," Alice said softly but her
departure wasn't noted by any of the three of them.

"Daddy'll make it all better, sweetheart," Alexis whispered, and
Sonny's eyes lifted sharply to hers.

"You're crying, too," he whispered back, stroking the back of his
hand gently under her eyes to wipe the tears away.

Alexis laugh was half-sob. "Yeah, I seem to be an endless well of
water these days," she admitted. "When someone I love hurts, I hurt,
too."

Sonny's eyes darkened as he nodded. He leaned in to kiss Krissy's
forehead where it rested on his chest. "It's just a scrape. She'll be
alright."

She met his gaze straight on. "I didn't mean Kristina," she said
brokenly and stepped closer to him, one of her hands finding a place
above his heart. "Some wounds are too deep and in hidden places where
I can't bandage them and kiss them away like I can for my child. I
wish the wound I gave you could be healed as easily as one of her
bruises…with words and tender care and love. But your wound is
somewhere deep and I don't know how to heal it, Sonny. I don't like
seeing you in pain. And I don't want to lose what we have together."

Her chest tightened so much that she didn't know if she could get the
words out, but she forced herself. "I've told you why I did what I
did, and why I believed I was right," she sobbed. "I can't undo it,
Sonny...any more than you can undo the tragic mistakes in your past.
All I can deal with is now…and I ask that you forgive me."

She knew what she was asking. The impossible. This was a man for whom
betrayal was not a possibility he faced but an expectation he
coveted. He claimed he could forgive, but Alexis knew better. He
always preserved a vestige of doubt in the corner of his soul when a
person let him down. It was the reason he still held Mike at arm's
length, the child in him still expecting the old man to leave him. It
was the reason he and Carly continued to implode; he still expected
her to self-destruct and sell him out to the Feds or to Alcazar or to
another lover. And it was the reason he'd gone to bed with Alexis
earlier and shared his body while holding his heart at arm's length
to protect it.

He did not forgive. He certainly did not forget.

She was asking the impossible.

He stared at her now for a long while, his jaw clenched and a pulse
throbbing visibly in his neck. She watched him wrestle against his
emotions, saw him swallow once, twice before he spoke. Only three
words. Three quiet words. But words that were not without hope.

"Give me time."

It was all he said. And then he turned and took Krissy with him into
the kitchen. Alexis pressed a fist to her mouth and prayed. She
prayed for a miracle. That for the first time in his adult life,
Sonny Corinthos would truly forgive.

***

Blue eyes fixed on Carly unblinking as she finished her last
statement. She stared back waiting for Jason to say something. When
apparently she could take the quiet no longer, she burst, "So now you
know what I did! What next?"

Jason began to shake with laughter. Strong but silent laughter. He
wiped his face wearily with one hand and shook his head. "You're
askin' me `what next' after you tell me you kept Sonny's kid from
him?"

Carly swallowed and nodded. "Yeah. What are you gonna do?"

"What else? I'm gonna go help mop my best friend up off the floor
where he is probably lying crumpled right now," he said
bitterly. "After finding out two of the most important people in his
adult life lied to him for years."

"I haven't known all that time," she scoffed.

"I don't care how long you knew," he told her. "You knew. And you
didn't tell. Not to protect Kristina…you admitted that. But to keep
Sonny away from Alexis."

"And I was right to do that, Jason! If the present situation proves
anything, it proves that I was right to do it! Look where he is right
now: with that bitch!"

Her loud voice grated on his nerves, and he once again wondered how
he could ever have found her "spunk" attractive. How he could ever
have confused her irreverent, self-centered spirit with courage. How
many times had she taken care of anyone beside herself? Yeah, she was
okay as a parent but as a friend? It was always about her and what
she thought should happen. Her own next words damned her.

"Come on, Jase. You know that I always do what I have to do to
survive. That's who I am. And you always loved that about me…Admit
it!"

Carly hand stole up to caress his firm jaw as she shot him a look
that he supposed she thought enticing. But unbidden, memories came to
him of another woman, her soft brown hair silky against his hands.
He'd been injured and she'd helped him, nursed him, gotten him food.
She'd hidden him in her art studio. Befriended him when everyone else
called him trash. Her soft hands had healed him, had given him peace
for a while.

Never had Carly's embrace been as soothing. Or giving. There had
always been something she wanted. Something she needed from him. And
he'd received precious little in return. He hadn't realized until
this very moment just how empty she'd left him…until he thought back
now to Elizabeth's gentle touch and compared the two.

There was no comparison. He shrugged Carly away from him now.

"Let me tell you something that you need to get straight," Jason
snapped at her. "Sonny isn't with Alexis because of that baby. He
didn't even know about Kristina and he loved Alexis. Even before they
made Kristina, he probably loved Alexis. It just took all this time
for him to finally realize it. And like I told you, you don't have a
weapon strong enough to defeat that, Carly. If Sonny and Alexis stay
together, it'll be their decision. If they don't, it'll still be
their decision. Not mine. And definitely not yours."

She gaped at him, her expression pained. "You know what?" she
demanded hoarsely. "I never expected you to be like this. I never
thought you'd take their side against me."

Jason gulped down the last of his beer, stood and tossed a few bills
on the top of the bar. "Life's full of surprises," he said, and
walked out the door.

chapter 45