PH4 – The Living
Room/Entrance Way
The room was fraught
with tension. Carly stood stock still
afraid she had said too much in her heated exchange with Sonny. She glanced hesitantly back and forth
between the two of them; between Sonny, whose face gave away nothing,
concealing his inner thoughts with an impenetrable shield that was almost
palpable and Jason who patiently awaited an answer to his question, concern
evident in his eyes.
Avoiding the question
for the time being, Carly frowned, puzzlement etched on her face. “Jason?” she asked, the question an implicit
request for an explanation of his presence there. When he failed to respond, she turned her gaze questioningly to
Sonny and finally back to Jason when he too failed to offer an explanation.
“Tell me what?” Jason
repeated, ignoring her question as she had done his own a few moments
earlier. Once again awaiting a
response, he leaned heavily on the stair railing beside him desperately in need
of the support it provided. The motion
went unnoticed by Carly, too absorbed in her apprehension to notice his
apparent discomfort.
Carly’s gaze
momentarily flickered to Sonny, her eyes silently asking the question she was
afraid to learn the answer to. Sonny
imperceptibly shook his head in a negative motion. The private exchange passed between the two of them unheeded by
Jason who still looked expectantly at Carly for a reply.
Relief flooded
through Carly as she realized it wasn’t too late to fix the latest mess she had
got herself into. Still ignoring
Jason’s question, she walked briskly towards the stairs and began in a rush,
“Jase, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
At the bottom landing where he met her she continued, “Where have you
been? I’ve tried calling, I’ve left messages.
I waited for you at your penthouse.
I was worried about you.”
Before Jason could
address her rapid-fire questioning, Sonny spoke up and quietly apologized, “I’m
sorry man, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Jason nodded in acknowledgement to Sonny’s statement, his gaze never
leaving Carly’s face ripe with concern for him.
“Wake you?” she
asked. “You were sleeping? It’s mid afternoon. Did you spend the night here? Why?
What happened? What’s the
matter?” she demanded, fearful of the answer, yet needing to hear it just the
same. She moved closer towards him and
for the first time, took a good look at him and his appearance. He was barefoot, wearing his usual pair of
jeans and a dress shirt that obviously belonged to Sonny. It was ill-fitting and seemingly hastily
donned as some of its’ buttons were left undone, and others were skewed,
mismatched with their intended holes.
Clothing aside, Jason’s features were pale and drawn, almost ashen, and
as he stood there leaning against the bottom of the banister, she finally
noticed he slightly favoured his right side.
In her mind, various scenarios sprung to unnatural life as she wondered
at what could have caused Jason’s unkempt and haggard appearance. Fear leapt to her eyes as it dawned on her
that whatever malevolence her mind manufactured, she would like the truth even
less.
“Jase? What happened?” she asked, her voice
quivering with the sound of freshly forming tears. Trepidation consuming her, she moved even closer and started to
run her hands up the sides his body.
When she reached his torso, he involuntarily tensed and gasped as her
fingers lightly slid over his bandages.
She raised shocked, fright-filled eyes to his and demanded harshly “Let
me see it,” and immediately pulled at the hem of his shirt to look upon the
damage with her own eyes. She was met
by the sight of blood soaked bandages wrapped tightly around Jason’s
midsection. Although bloody, the
bandages were dry and concealed all but the dark heavy bruising visible both
above and below the wrappings. Carly
tentatively reached out a hand to his side but at the last moment pulled back,
afraid to cause him any undue pain.
“Does it hurt?” she asked, raising her eyes to meet his, her as yet
unshed tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.
“Hey. I’m OK,” Jason
soothed. He reached out and wiped away
her tears with the pads of his thumbs.
“It looks much worse that it is.”
“Oh my God. Oh my God!” she cried. “I could have lost you last night and I
would never have known it.” She wrapped
her arms around him mindful of his wounds, and took comfort in the mere
presence of him; the arms that moved around her in comfort and the steady rise
and fall of his chest underneath her cheek.
Feeling her trembling within his embrace, Jason tightened his hold
grimacing at the pain he felt for having done so. It was a pain he welcomed, however, somehow reassuring and
life-affirming in its’ intensity. What
mattered now, in this moment, was that he was alive, that he was here with
Carly and that she needed him to be strong for her – even if it was a lie.
Carly opened her eyes
to find Sonny studying them with an odd expression on his face. Reluctant to disrupt such an intimate moment
between them he coughed nervously and said, “Um, Jason? You really should be getting back to bed.
You need to rest.”
“And you! What’s the matter with you?” Carly raged at
Sonny, using her anger towards him as the only available outlet to vent her
frustration and fear at almost having lost Jason. Abruptly she broke out of Jason’s embrace, unmindful of the pain
the sudden movement would cause him. He
grabbed his side and leaned heavily on the staircase as she began her way
across the room to Sonny. “I come here
begging, pleading with you to tell me where Jason is and the whole time he’s
upstairs recovering from… – from what?”
Realizing neither had answered her question about what had happened the
night before, she returned to Jason and demanded, “What put this hole in your
side?”
“If you calm down,
I’ll tell you,” he said in carefully measured tones, the residual pain in his
side slowly subsiding.
After a few deep
breaths, in an overly sedate tone of voice, she simply stated, “I’m calm.”
Highly doubtful of
the fact, Jason regardless decided to allay her fears by answering her
question. He placed his hands lightly
on her shoulders to steady her and demanded her attention with his gaze,
conveying with his eyes the message that he was fine and she need not
worry. He briefly smiled in reassurance,
and almost reluctantly, revealed “I was shot.”
She turned angrily
towards Sonny and accused, ”You sent him out to get shot for you?”
Her words
cut him Sonny deeply. It was no more than
what he had been thinking himself, yet it hurt to hear it voiced by another,
especially Carly. But then the truth
hurt, didn't it. He shook his head,
smiling wryly at the wayward thought.
Her anger escalated at the amused expression on his face, and
grew higher still as she realized that while Jason was out getting shot for
him, Sonny was home, in the safety of his bed, with Jason’s woman. With her.
Sure that he had planned it that way, she shook her head disbelievingly
at the calculated callousness of this man who presumed to call himself Jason’s
best friend. “You cold, selfish, son of
a bi--”
“Carly!” Jason shouted, cutting her off in
mid-sentence. “Carly, please,” he
implored, “I’m not strong enough to referee a fight between the two of you
right now.”
Hearing the plea for
peace in his voice and seeing the exhaustion in his eyes and in the way he
carried himself, Carly relented, the fight leaving her as quickly as it had
developed. Now was not the time to
confront Sonny about his actions the night before, or his reasons for
them. But that time would come. Soon.
Letting it go, she turned concerned eyes towards Jason as asked, “What
are you doing out of bed anyway? You
should be resting.”
“I heard the two of
you and didn’t want a repeat of last night.”
His answer surprised her and she looked guiltily at Sonny, afraid he had
said something to Jason after all.
“What do you mean?”
she asked, a slight edge to her voice. Although asked of Jason, her eyes had
remained on Sonny and it was he who answered.
“I told Jason about
how we fought last night. You know, that it was bad.”
Carly nodded and
closed her eyes, understanding what was said and more importantly, what was not
said. She had been granted a
reprieve. But for how long she silently
wondered. She turned to Jason saying,
“Come on. We need to get you back
upstairs.” She placed an arm gently
around his waist and wrapped one of his across her shoulders letting him rely
on her for support. Slowly, she began to lead him up the stairs, the fact that
he leaned so heavily upon her a testament to the toll the excursion down the
stairs had taken from him.
Sonny watched as they
departed, Carly’s smaller frame supporting the bulk of Jason’s much larger
one. He knew he should offer to help
but didn’t want to interfere. And did
he have the right to after what he did, he wondered. He had helped Jason enough as it was. He had helped him into this life, into his business, and by
sending him that meeting last night, he had almost helped him out of it. Permanently. He might has well have pulled the trigger himself, he
thought. He shook his head to clear his
mind of the thoughts plaguing him and stepped forward to offer his
assistance. He hesitated however;
watching the couple slowly begin their ascent of the upper landing, it suddenly
dawned on him: whatever he knew, or
thought he knew about Carly, he could count on one thing: she would not let
Jason fall. Right before they
disappeared, he heard Carly start in on Jason, “So what? You didn’t think this was worth a call?” and
despite himself and the way he was feeling, Sonny smiled.
PH4 – The Guestroom
“Carly, really, I’m
fine,” Jason reassured for the fifth time in as many minutes. He sat propped up in bed against a plethora
of pillows that Carly was once again trying to rearrange in an effort to make
him more comfortable.
Giving up, she sat
back on the edge of the bed and absently began to pick imaginary balls of lint
from the oversized comforter that covered it.
After a few moments of silence she looked up and began, “You know I
worry about you. And when I couldn’t
find you today –.“ She bit her lip as
she recalled the panic she had gone through wondering where he was and if Sonny
had told him what they did, never once imagining the truth could have been
worse…so much worse. “All I’m saying is
you could have let me know. I would
have been here for you.” She looked
down to her hands playing with the corner of the bed sheet as she finished
quietly, “No matter what happened last night.”
Images of her with Sonny the night before flooded her mind interspersed
with her imaginings of Jason shot, lying alone in the cold, bleeding to death
on the snow covered pavement somewhere.
Guilt weighed heavily upon her with the knowledge that while she was
betraying him with his best friend, he had almost been killed.
“I know,” he assured,
never doubting that she would always be there when he needed her.
Uneasy with his faith
in her in the face of her betrayal, she turned her mind away from her and Sonny
and the guilt she was feeling and concentrated solely on Jason. “So what happened? Hmm?”
“Carly you know
better than to ask me about business.
I’m fine. That’s all you need to
know.” She shrugged indicating she was
not in total agreement with that statement.
To close the subject, with a tone of finality he stated, “That’s all you
get to know.” Now, what happened
between you and Sonny last night?”
PH4 – The Living
Room/Entrance Way
Sonny sat downstairs
at his desk working on the same invoices from the night before. Knowing he would get as much work done now
as then, he tossed them aside and gave up any pretence of productivity. He sat back, ran his hands wearily through
his black curls and let his mind wander where it would, which was right
upstairs to what was being said between Jason and Carly at the moment.
He knew she had been
desperate to find Jason because he had threatened to tell him – was in fact, going to tell him the truth
of what happened between the two of them.
But that all changed the moment Jason had walked in last night with a
bullet wound in his side; from a bullet that had had Sonny’s name neatly inscribed
on its’ deadly casing. Sonny would not
– could not -- cut him any deeper after that.
And revealing the truth about Carly – about him and Carly – would do
that. For despite what he said the
previous night, he knew Jason loved her.
He had known that, and he took her anyway.
As for Carly, she
couldn’t be trusted. He knew that too.
He had had her figured out. She didn’t
love Jason. She didn’t know how. She was a user. All she knew was manipulation and lies. But there had been a fleeting moment earlier when he thought
perhaps he had been wrong. That maybe, just maybe, she really did love
him. Which made what he did last night
so much more the worse.
Sonny was startled
out of his thoughts by a knock at the door.
He began to call out to Johnny to rid him of the unexpected visitor when
he remembered the guard had yet to return.
He pushed back from the desk and made his way to the door to be greeted
by a smugly smiling Lt. Taggert and another officer whom Sonny did not
recognize.
Inwardly, Sonny
chided himself for not anticipating this visit and for not moving Jason to a
safe house as the situation warranted.
Overwhelmed by his betrayals, both being with Carly and nearly getting
Jason killed, Sonny couldn’t think clearly.
He couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t focus on business where his thoughts
needed to be at the moment. He was
letting his emotions run rampant. It
was clouding his judgement and he was making mistakes – mistakes he couldn’t
afford to make in the midst of this dangerous time. And they end now, he thought.
With his best poker face in place, Sonny greeted, “Lt Taggert, officer,
what an unexpected surprise. I’d invite
you in but I was just on my way out. “
As Sonny moved to
walk past the officers out the door, Lt. Taggert put a hand out stopping him in
his tracks. “Not so fast,
Corinthos.” Sonny stared meaningfully
at the hand on his chest and then raised his steely gaze to meet that of the
lieutenant’s. The two men stood locked
in a non verbal dispute of long standing until at last Taggert removed his hand
and took a slight step backwards, still barring Sonny’s exit.
Continuing to hold
Sonny’s stare, Taggert stated his business in a cold professional manner, “Something went down last night on Pier
17. Something big. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about
that, now would you?” In answer, Sonny
declared his innocence with raised brows and shrugged his shoulders in
denial. “Moreno’s disappeared. But I suppose you wouldn’t know anything
about that either.
Sonny barked out a
sharp laugh at Taggert’s thinly veiled accusation. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me
get this straight. You’re here because
Anthony Moreno decided to take a vacation?”
“I hear he’s swimming
with the sharks,” Taggert pressed.
“Tropics are nice
this time of year,” Sonny coolly rejoined.
“So you finally had
Moreno taken out, huh? I’m surprised it
took you so long. Why don’t you do the
citizens of Port Charles a big favour and ‘fess up. Save the poor working class
their money.” Taggert leaned closely in
toward Sonny and whispered, “Confession’s good for the soul, Sonny.”
Sonny sighed heavily,
his annoyance at Taggert’s constant harassment barely overshadowed by his
apprehension at having Jason upstairs. “I’m a working man Taggert. I run a perfectly respectable coffee business
– of which you are well aware. I have
better things to do as you stand here accusing me of Moreno’s disappearance
while he’s sitting back, relaxing on a beach somewhere. You’ve stated your business. I can’t help you. I’ll thank you to leave now.”
Sonny moved to the door and made to motion the officers out.
“Not so fast, I know
you’re hiding something, Sonny. You’re
going to tell me what happened down at the pier last night. One way or another.”
Sonny, momentarily
taken aback by Taggert’s tone, raised his eyebrow in query, silentlly asking,
how far would the other man take things, had they been alone. He clucked his tongue, cocked his head to
the side and offered in his least sincere tone possible, “Gee, Taggert, I’d
love to help you out with that, but I was home all last night.” He smiled at the scowl that momentarily
appeared on Taggert’s face.
“You wouldn’t happen
to have any witnesses to that fact, would you?” Taggert questioned and was
gratified by the reaction he received: the smile froze on Sonny’s face as he
remembered precisely who his alibi was and what they were doing at the time in
question.
PH4 – The Guestroom
Jason waited
expectantly for an answer. Carly
avoided his gaze, still picking at the lint on the comforter, as she answered,
“It’s not important.” Dismissing the
topic as dealt with, she ended her in depth study of the bed coverings and,
noticing his empty water glass on the night table offered, “Can I get you some
water?” She scooted closer to the head
of the bed only to find the pitcher empty as well. She absently started to arrange the table top contents and when
she came upon his medication she picked them up examining them closely. Noticing the antibiotics have been taken but
the bottle of pain killers was still full, she held the bottle up and asked,
“Why haven’t you been taking these?”
His answer was short
and simple. “I don’t need them.”
“The doctor obviously
didn’t think so.” Reading the
instructions on the label she opened the bottle and poured two small pills into
the palm of her hand. “You’re taking
these.”
“Carly –“ he began to
protest.
“Jase, please? I hate to see you hurting.” She pouted turning pleading doe eyes upon
him.
“I’m fine,” he
reassured.
“And I know better,”
she refuted. “That trip down the stairs
took a lot out of you. Whether you’re
going to admit it or not.” He began to
argue against that only to be cut off before he was able to start. “Do it for me. It’ll make me feel better.
Pleeeeeeeeeease?” she beseeched.
And try as he might,
he could not refuse her. “Fine,” he
conceded and was rewarded with a huge smile that brightened her face.
“Good. I’ll go get you some water.” She rose from the bed, grabbed the pitcher
and pocketed his pills. Jason raised
his eyebrow and cocked his head to the side in question of her last move. She laughed and explained, “I don’t want
these mysteriously disappearing while I’m gone.” She placed her hand over the slight bulge the pill bottle made in
her pocket, patted it reassuringly, turned and swiftly left the room, jug in
hand.
Carly made her way
down the hall admiring the décor, mentally noting what she would decorate
differently. As she reached the end of
the hallway and began her descent down the stairs she abruptly halted, recognizing
the voices below and the all too familiar conversation they were having. Backing up so as not to be seen, she
remained at the top of the landing, listening to the men as they talked below.
PH4 – The Living
Room/Entrance Way
Sonny answered quickly
careful not to reveal just how much Taggert’s question had fazed him. “You know I don’t answer any questions
without my lawyer, Taggert. Do I need
one?”
“That’s entirely up
to you, Mr Corinthos.” Taggert paused,
looking searchingly into Sonny’s eyes as if he could detect the guilt of a man,
in the depths of his gaze. He
continued, “There are no charges pending against you at this time. But all Ms. Davis will tell you is that this
is a perfectly legal warrant for us the search the premises.” He pulled the search warrant from his breast
pocket and waved it tauntingly in front of Sonny’s face. “But you don’t need an attorney to tell you
that. You’ve had enough of these served
I’m sure you can tell everything is in order.
But, if you want to summon Ms Davis, by all means, please do. We’ll wait.”
Unnoticed, Carly
turned and rushed quietly back to the guest room, the beginnings of a plan
quickly forming in her mind.
“You’re telling me
the PCPD has nothing better to do than to harass me? An innocent tax paying citizen of Port Charles?”
Folding his arms
across his chest with the search warrant still in his hands, Taggert smiled as
he answered, “Not today.”
Grabbing the warrant
from Taggert, Sonny began to read it. To his dismay, everything seemed to be in
order. “Well, all the I’s are dotted
and the t’s are crossed. Who am I to
waste the tax payers’ money? Let’s get
this over with – quickly. And remember:
what you break, you pay for.” Without
another word or a backward glance, Sonny headed for the stairs the two cops in
tow closely behind him.
As the three men made
their way down the hall upstairsl, Taggert motioned the unnamed officer down a
second hallway to search the rooms there while he and Sonny continued towards
the guest and master bedrooms. “You
redecorate since my last visit?” he asked conversationally. There was definitely a difference in the
décor from the last time he had searched Sonny’s apartment.
“Well, you know. You and your men, you come. You mess with my things. Can’t be too careful” he replied
blithely. He took great pleasure in the
dark, angry flush that suffused Taggert’s checks and the sudden hardness in his
eyes that appeared in reaction to Sonny’s implication that he and officers of
the PCPD were less than trustworthy.
Sonny’s gratification was short lived however, as Taggert angrily
grabbed the doorknob to the guestroom and made to enter. Sonny coughed loudly and raised his voice saying,
”Ah Taggert, you may want to think twice about going in there.”
“Sounds like you’re
hiding something after all,” Taggert spoke through clenched teeth. He smiled coldly, sure he would finally
catch Sonny in the middle of one of his extra-legal activities. “Why don’t we find out what’s behind door
number one?” Not waiting for an answer,
he unceremoniously opened the door behind which the two men found the
surprising sight of Jason and Carly occupying the bed, sharing an intimate
embrace.