She raised her head higher, moistened her lips, and parted them to speak. Sonny stepped off the elevator and she closed her mouth. No, better let him speak first, she thought.
Instead he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her behind him as he stalked his way towards her office. When they passed Kristina's desk, the secretary couldn't help but melt in her seat and sigh. Sonny pushed Carly into the office first then closed the door behind him. The loud click as he locked the door reverberated throughout the suddenly quiet office.
He stared at her and said, "We need to discuss a few things. Set some ground rules."
Ground rules, she thought. Yes, let's set some rules.
"Oh you want ground rules now?" Carly went off. "So the ground rule is you stay married to Lois after promising me that you were leaving her. And I'm supposed to be happy with it? I've had relationships with married men before and I know how this game works. And so help me God if you dare throw Jason in my face…when you know very well that that was different."
"You never shut up." Sonny murmured with a slight smirk on his face.
"Screw. You."
"We could be doing that if you'd just be quiet for once." He suggested with a shrug.
Carly narrowed her eyes and shot him an icy look. Sonny pushed off from the door and started towards her.
"You talk too damn much and you fly off the handle at the wrong times." Sonny said as he approached her.
"Me?" Carly laughed and took a few steps back. "What about you? You're just as dramatic."
"But that's okay." Sonny said as if she hadn't spoken. "I like it. With you, I have to."
"Stop!" Carly raised her hand. "No. We are not going to just brush this aside by going at it on my desk. We have a problem and her name is Lois."
Sonny grunted in frustration and shook his head. "My marriage…my divorce is not…" He paused. "How Lois and I end things is up to us. Not you."
"You're dragging it out." She spat out. "For two people who haven't even lived in the same city for years, you two sure are taking your precious time."
"I've known her all my life!" Sonny shouted. "This isn't something I'm just going to rush through. All right? We have a relationship, children. I'm not going to kick her out when this is the last time we'll…"
Carly wrapped her arms around herself and stared at him. "Sonny, are you trying to say that you want to give your marriage another shot? Tell me straight out. Are you 'taking your time' to figure out if there's still something there?"
"No." Sonny said without hesitation, curling his hands around her arms. Carly closed her eyes briefly in relief.
"You want to take your time." Carly said. "You can't do that. It's like pulling off a Band-Aid. You can't do it slowly, it takes too much time and it hurts. You just have to rip the sucker off. You'll get over the hurt faster."
Sonny shook his head. "Your analogies stink."
She lifted her chin. "I'm still right."
"You're scared for no reason. And throwing out ultimatums don't help."
"Well patting me on the head and telling me not to worry doesn't help either. Because guess what, Sonny. I'm worrying. We need to fix this."
"Look, there's nothing to fix. There's no reason for you to be threatened by or jealous of Lois." She snorted at that. He ignored her. "I want to be with you. You. I'm getting damn sick of this."
"Then do something about it."
"What? What do you want me to do that I can do? You can't always get your way."
"Then we have nothing more to talk about." She said flatly.
"Just because I don't jump when you-I'm not your damn lapdog like Jason was." Sonny growled.
"I know that." She sighed, losing the energy to fight. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. "I'm just so tired of this whole thing."
"You're not the only one." Sonny muttered.
"We just keep going around and around. We're not going to solve this tonight." She said, resigned.
"So what are we going to do now?"
"What I'm going to do," Carly said, "is go home and take a bath. I don't know about you."
"Dinner was great." Nikolas said as he helped Laura stack the dishes on the table. As soon as they were done eating Luke had hustled Lulu out of the house with some lame excuse. The raised eyebrow he'd given Nikolas before they left told Nikolas that he expected Nikolas to talk to Laura.
"Thank you, honey." Laura smiled brightly at him. He paused for a moment to bask in the warmth from that smile. "You know, you don't have to help me with all this."
"I don't mind." Nikolas assured her. He grabbed Lulu's plate and moved the napkin aside. Yes, there were the peas he'd saw her hide earlier. "Consider it payment for a home cooked meal."
"You've been eating take-out junk food haven't you?" Laura shook her head with motherly concern. "Any time you get sick of that just stop by here, okay? For any reason. I don't mind. I…I'd love to see you more."
For the first time Nikolas felt ashamed of his behavior in the last few weeks. Why had he avoided this house and his mother? Was he afraid of not living up to her expectations or her not living up to his?
He bent his head and stared at the table for a moment. "I'll try to come by a little more often."
He glanced up in time to see a soft smile cross her lips. "That would be nice."
Nikolas rushed to explain. "I'm sorry I haven't-"
Laura laid her hand on his arm. "It's okay, really. I'm just happy you're here now."
"I'll try to stop in a little more often." He swore. She just smiled and gave his arm a squeeze.
"Don't worry about it."
"No, I really will." He said, he wasn't going to make any empty promises.
"We'd like that." Laura paused and rolled her eyes. "Well Luke will eventually come to like it. And so will Lucky."
Lois was taking a shortcut across the docks when her cell phone rang. She paused by a bench and passed the bags she'd been carrying to her guard. He took them and stood off to the side to give her privacy as she rooted through her purse and pulled out the cell.
"Hello? Michael?" She said anxiously. She rarely used the cell phone.
"Mom, it's me!"
Lois sighed in relief and sat down on the bench. "Brooke, what is it?"
"You gotta come home. Grandma is driving me crazy!"
Lois rolled her eyes. "What's going on?"
"Grandma won't let me do anything!" She whined. "She just wants me sit around the house watching Mikey or listening to her and old boring friends talk about boring old crap."
"Brooke Lynn Corinthos!"
"Come on, Mom. It's so dead here. She won't let me go out with my friends and you said that my punishment was over. Remember?"
Lois squeezed her eyes shut. "Brooke…"
"When are you coming home?"
"Your father-"
"You told me that Dad was doing good."
"And he is."
"So come on home already." Brooke insisted.
"It's not that simple."
"Mo-om! If he's fine you gotta come home. Or…" Brooke hesitated. "Is this like some gross second honeymoon thing for you guys and you're getting back together and Mikey and I are going to move up there with you guys? Are we going to get a big house? I want a huge room."
Lois winced at the hope in her daughter's voice. "That's not what's happening. We told you about the divorce. That hasn't changed. Where are you getting this from?"
"I overheard Grandma and Grandpa…"
"Are they around?" Lois demanded.
"I think Grandma is."
"Put her on the phone."
Lois waited as Brooke dropped the phone and went in search of her grandmother. Damn, she didn't want Brooke getting her hopes up over this. Maybe it was time to go home. By staying for so long, she may have suggested to her family that the situation had changed.
"Hi, hon. How are you guys up there?" Her mother had finally come to the phone.
"Ma, I'm going to be home soon, possibly tomorrow." Lois decided.
"Really?" Her mother sounded shocked.
"Yeah, I'm coming home."
"Really?" This time her mother was clearly disappointed. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Lois stressed. "And Ma, don't be spinning any fairy tales for the kids. Michael's too young to know what's going on and Brooke will understand."
"Hon, I just want you to be happy. And for a while he made you happy. You should take your time if you're not positive this is a step you want to take."
"It's a step I have to take, Ma. And I'll be happy, don't worry."
"Goodnight, Lulu." Nikolas kissed his sister on her forehead and helped her pull the covers up closer around her. After she and Luke came back from whatever they'd gone Nikolas had decided to stick around the house for a while. He helped Lulu with homework and talked about superficial things with Laura under Luke's watchful eye.
When it was Lulu's bedtime she demanded he read her a bedtime story and tuck her in. Instead he told her stories about growing up in Greece until finally Laura had to call up and remind them that it was past time for Lulu to be asleep.
"Night Nikolas." She said around a yawn.
He was on his way out the door when she called out. "Are you going to come back again?"
"Sure", he said.
"Promise?"
He nodded. "I promise."
He softly closed the door behind him and started for the stairs. He was on the top step when he heard Luke yell.
"Woman! What is this about?" There was a loud rattling noise.
Nikolas gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Don't do it, he told himself. He leaned in to hear them better. If he had to, however, he would step in.
He heard Laura sigh. "Luke, leave it alone."
"You haven't been taking these." Luke accused.
"No, I haven't it." She said matter-of-factly.
"Why?"
"I don't need them anymore. Leave it alone. Please."
"The hell you don't them anymore."
"There's no reason for me to take those pills. Nikolas is here. I don't have to… I won't… Everything will be fine now. Trust me."
Nikolas frowned, what in the world were they talking about? Deciding he'd heard enough, Nikolas stomped down the stairs, hopefully making enough noise to alert them. As he got closer he saw Luke slip a bottle of pulls into his pocket.
Luke rubbed the back of his head. "You finally get her off to bed?"
Nikolas nodded, looking at them suspiciously. Luke looked aggravated while Laura wore a false cheerful smile. "Uh, yeah…sorry I took so long."
"No, she enjoyed it I bet." Laura assured him.
"I was just on my out." He said. "I have to get up early tomorrow."
"See ya, kid." Luke said gruffly. Luke glanced over at Laura before angrily striding out of the room.
Nikolas walked closer to Laura. He said softly. "Is there anything wrong?"
"What? Oh, no, nothing's wrong." Laura said. "You better get going if you have an early day."
Nikolas could accept her assurances as she hustled him out of the door. Accept them for the time being that is.
It was pretty late the next day by the time Nikolas caught up with Lucky outside of Kelly's. Lucky was cleaning off the tables because one of the waitresses had to take off. Lucky muttered something under his breath as he dropped the cloth he'd been using.
"What?" He snapped. The last person Lucky wanted to see was Nikolas.
Nikolas walked towards him with his hands raised. "I'm not here to fight."
"Then what do you want?"
"I just want some answers."
"About what?"
"Our mother." He hesitated. "I want to know about the pills and what they have to do with me."